Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Australia's cricket captain Ricky Ponting (right) and coach Timothy Nielsen display their country's former national flag to commemorate the first Australian team that toured England 100 years ago. At left is Jamaica Cricket Association president Jackie Hendricks. The Australians arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday to begin their tour of the West Indies. - Junior Dowie

Ricky Ponting, captain of Australia's cricket team, said despite the West Indies' low International Cricket Council world rating, his team won't be taking the hosts lightly in their upcoming three-Test series which begins May 22 at Sabina Park.

Ponting, who was speaking at a press conference shortly after his team's arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday, said although they are expected to win the series, he expects the West Indies to put up a good fight at home.

"Whenever you play an opposing team in their home country, you always expect them to lift their game and play in their conditions very well," said Ponting.

He gave credit to the West Indies' bowlers, noting that they have done well in different conditions around the world.

"I think that their bowling attack is also a lot better now than in the past couple of years and certainly better than the last time we played against them," he said.

"I don't think that we will lose this series. I think we will win this series, but I am expecting it to be a tussle between two good teams."

Ponting added: "Even though they (West Indies) are ranked at number eight in the world, I think that they started to play some good cricket of late."

Ponting was making reference to the home series against Sri Lanka in March where the much-improved West Indies drew the Test series 1-1 and won the one-day series 2-0.

On Australia's last tour of the Caribbean in 2003, West Indies scored a record 418 to win the final Test after they lost the first three.

"It's an exciting tour for us because it's always great to play in the Caribbean. I have made a few trips here before and some have been good memories and some have been not so good memories for the Australian team," Ponting noted.

He added that his team is looking forward to this tour, which will be their first competitive series in almost five months.

"We had a camp in Brisbane last week and the guys have got together and worked hard. We're preparing ourselves for what we expect to be a very tough series," Ponting said.

The Australians will open their tour with a three-day match against a Jamaica select team starting on Friday at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium.

Full squad: Brad Hodge, Stuart Clark, Bradley Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Douglas Bollinger, Michael Hussey, Philip Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Bret Lee, Stuart McGill, Ashley Noffke and Andrew Symonds.