West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan in a contemplative mood before taking to the nets in yesterday's training session at Chedwin Park. -Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

STILL BASKING in their opening World Cup victory against Pakistan and now awaiting minnows Zimbabwe and Ireland, the West Indies have made it clear that they will approach every game seriously.

The team practice at Chedwin Park yesterday saw top batsmen Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chander-paul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels enjoy good workouts against fast bowlers Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Corey Collymore and all-rounder Dwayne Smith.

Powell and Dwayne Bravo made it clear that they were not looking ahead of next week's matches.

The West Indies face Zimbabwe on Monday and Ireland on Friday at Sabina Park, aware that a victory will assure they take two points with them into the Super Eight phase of the competition.

Powell, who took 2-42 in Tuesday's opening game, said they every game had to be taken seriously.

"We have to take each game seriously, it's a World Cup and anything can happen," Powell said.

He said it didn't matter who they were playing, as winning was the only aim.

"We just want to go out there, play basic cricket, play hard and come out on top," he said.

Bravo believes it's important to fully win back the support of the Caribbean people.

"We are looking forward to doing well for the people of the West Indies," the all-rounder said. "We are taking them (games) very seriously, our aim is to top the group," he said.

Powell said yesterday's session dealt mostly with bowling to left-right combinations.

He said it was "for the bowlers to bowl to right- and left-handers, because the game we played against Pakistan was mostly right-handers and the one that will follow is left-right combinations".

anthony.foster@gleanerjm.com