Sammy Targets Clean Sweep To Improve ODI Ranking

Sammy Targets Clean Sweep To Improve ODI Ranking

Darren Sammy hopes the West Indies can win all five ODIs to give their ranking position a boost

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A day prior to the first One-Day International against Bangladesh in Khulna West Indies captain Darren Sammy has again outlined his target for his team to win every game they play during the tour.

They have completed the first part of the task by winning both Test matches to take a 2-0 series win and now Sammy targets a 5-0 win to improve their ODI ranking.

A clean sweep would close the gap on Pakistan, in sixth place in the rankings, and West Indies start the series just 23 ranking points below the West Indies in ninth place.

"First of all, we want to the series," Sammy said. "If we accomplish the goal we are trying to achieve, 5-0 gives us five ranking points. 4-1 gives us one and 3-2 might lose us ranking points.

"I will let the guys know that to get maximum ranking points, we have got to win all five matches – but first we will look to win the series, which I think is possible if we play to our potential.

"We will take one thing at a time now, this is just the first game of a five-match series and we need to make sure we do the right things and give ourselves a good start to the series."

However, despite Sammy's naked ambition, he has seen enough in the Test series that Bangladesh will be no pushovers.

"We saw in the Tests that whenever it appeared they may have been down, they kept coming back at us, especially in the second Test," he said.

"They had that great partnership the No. 8 (Mahmudullah) and No. 10 (Abul Hasan) put on in the first innings.

"We are not taking them for granted. We have always held the belief that we could come here and win, once we play to our full potential, we could be a very destructive force."

© Cricket World 2012