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HARARE, Monday (Reuters)

Captain: Heath Streak.

Coach: Geoff Marsh.

Group A (with Australia, Pakistan, India, England, Namibia, Netherlands).

Strengths: Home advantage will be their greatest plus - they play all six of their group matches in Harare and Bulawayo. Their other trump card is Andy Flower, one of the most accomplished batsmen in the game. Captain Heath Streak remains a fine competitor, even if his bowling powers are on the wane. A surprise Zimbabwe win against one of the top sides is more likely to come from inspirational team efforts than from individual heroics.

Weaknesses: In the absence of discarded opening batsman Alistair Campbell, all-rounder Neil Johnson (who retired to play in South Africa) and batsman Murray Goodwin (who left to play in Australia), the Zimbabwe top order has a fragile look. An early fall of wickets will put even greater pressure on Flower, plus brother Grant, to hold the innings together.

The bowling lacks bite too, although Henry Olonga will bowl his heart out at considerable pace and Sean Irvine is a genuinely exciting all-round talent. Ongoing political tensions at home have the potential to disrupt Zimbabwe's preparations, as well as their concentration.

Squad: Heath Streak, Andy Blignaut, Dion Ebrahim, Sean Ervine, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Douglas Hondo, Doug Marillier, Brian Murphy, Henry Olonga, Tatenda Taibu, Mark Vermeulen, Guy Whittall, Craig Wishart.

Key man: Andy Flower - the only Zimbabwean to have played 200 ODI matches, to have scored more than 6,000 runs in ODIs and to have accumulated more than 4,000 test runs. He heads Zimbabwe's current ODI and test batting averages.

One-day form: Despite two wins against Kenya in December, they have lost their last nine games against test-playing sides, their last victory coming against India at Kochi almost a year ago. That run followed a wretched sequence of 16 consecutive ODI defeats which ended in October 2001. In all, they have lost eight of their last 38 games.

Past World Cups: Caused one of the tournament's biggest shocks by defeating Australia by 13 runs at Trent Bridge in the 1983 World Cup. Beat England by nine runs at Albury in Australia at the 1992 tournament. Were surprise qualifiers for the Super Six stage of the 1999 World Cup in England, having beaten South Africa - largely thanks to the departed Johnson - during the group stages.

Prediction: A first-round exit.

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