West Indies Brian Lara. - Reuters
DESPITE losing the five-match one-day international series 3-1 to Pakistan, West Indies skipper Brian Lara says his team still has great hopes for the World Cup which will be hosted in the region next year.
After losing the fifth and final match in Karachi on Saturday in a series reduced by one rained out contest, Lara also says the West Indies team is not bothered by the defeat, even though they will play Pakistan in the first World Cup match at Sabina Park.
"Psychologically, I think this is not going to affect us in our future one-day games, especially over the next four to five months with the World Cup coming up," he said of the margin of defeat. "Of course we have to meet Pakistan in the opening game and they would definitely feel buoyed because they have beaten us.
"I'm pretty pleased with where we are. we've seen the likes of young Lendl Simmons coming out and performing - he got a good score in the second game - and I think we're taking good shape. We are missing a couple of key players, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo, but all in all I'm quietly confident that we can move away from here and still have great hope for the World Cup," noted Lara.
Key players missing
Commenting generally on the ODI matches in Pakistan, Lara said the team tried its best.
"We did not end on a very good note. We were missing key players and it was important that whichever 11 we put out in the middle that we gave of our best and try to win the series. I think the guys did give of their best; it was tough and you have to take into consideration that we have been on the road for a pretty long time."
The Windies had earlier played a three-match Test series against Pakistan and had been involved in other ODI series on the sub-continent where it advanced to the finals of both the ICC Champions Trophy and a tri-nation series.
Giving his overall take on the trip to Pakistan, Lara said: "It was slightly disappointing. There were key moments in the series in the Tests and one-dayers.
" We played really well in Multan after a poor performance in Lahore and should have gone on to win that Test match if we took a couple more catches, and you know from then on we could only draw the series and we came to Karachi and lost.
"I thought that in the Test series we found ourselves, like we've done in the past, in winning positions and couldn't close the opposition off and in losing positions and couldn't really hang on for a draw and that is something that has been around and has been branded on the West Indies team for the last few years."
He added: "Unfortunately it happened again but I'm still seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and I think in the Test arena we've got England next in May and it's something that we should look forward to.
"On a whole we've enjoyed Pakistan, it came on the back of a couple of One Day tournaments so it was always going to be tough but the guys have played three and a half months of tough cricket and we've just got to go away from here, get some rest and get ready for the new year."
Assessing the team's progress over the three and a half month tour to the sub-continent, Lara said: "If you look at the first couple months in Malaysia and the ICC Champions Trophy you can tell that we went out there, we won games against very good teams, we got to the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy to defend our trophy we won two years ago. Again we faltered over the last hurdle like we did against Australia, like we did in Malaysia but the fact that we got there (to the final) is enough for us to work with.
" I think in the One Day game we are going to enter the World Cup a very confident unit. We've got some work to do, some little areas to work on and I'm sure we're going to do that in the next couple of months to ensure that we are fully ready for the World Cup."
