KHULNA, Bangladesh – Darren Sammy said West Indies would use the five One-day Internationals against Bangladesh to advance in the World Rankings.
The Windies captain said his side would need to win all five matches in the series to secure a significant boost in the rankings and this would be the mission when the side opens the series on Friday at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium here.
West Indies are presently ranked seventh in the World with Bangladesh two places below and 23 ranking points between the two. A boost from a clean sweep would carry the visitors within touching distance of sixth-placed Pakistan, just 10 points ahead.
“First of all, we want to win the series,” he 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.”
Sammy said West Indies had enough evidence from the preceding two Tests to know that winning all five matches will not be easy.
“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.”
Sammy will be leading the side for the first time under the new rules approved last May by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s World governing body, governing fielding restrictions.
There will be two blocks of Power Plays instead of three, and in an uninterrupted innings, the first Power Play will be restricted to the first 10 overs with only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard, field-restriction circle.
The second five-over batting Power Play (in an uninterrupted innings) will have to be completed by the 40th over and only three fielders will be allowed outside the fielding restriction area at the time of delivery.
In the non-Power Play overs, no more than four fielders will be permitted outside the 30-yard circle.
Sammy said, like vice captain Kieron Pollard the previous day following the team’s practice match against the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI, the new regulations will be taxing to captains and bowlers.
“It’s becoming more of a batsman’s game,” he said. “Teams were scoring 300 runs plus with five fielders outside the circle. Now, it’s only four.
“I personally feel sorry for the spinners. They will have to come up with new ways to get wickets and to be economical.”
He added: “But those are the rules and we just have to move on and try our best our best to execute our plans properly.
“We will have one more fielder in the inside the circle, which could mean more pressure on the batsmen and no easy singles. It’s a challenge, but we are hopeful we can overcome it and be successful with what we do.”
How in the world do you talk about a clean sweep of a five-game series and you have not won any! You talk about a sweep when you are 2-0 or 3-0. His big mouth is now shut and maybe Bange can talk about a clean sweep because they are 1-0. Sammy must understand that cricket is not played in the media house, but on the field with a cricket ball. He also needs to understand that 50 over game is not the same as test cricket especially when the opposition is batting very deep, with some quality spinners, and playing before their home crowd. So shut up Sammy! Go on the field and start to perform.
LOL clean sweep they say lol who watch the game last nite? bang Won with over 9 over left lol. They played like a small island team vs Australia at it’s best lol omg what a shame…
@BiGmE – The Windies lost a game and that is a big shame? Is the West Indies team a specialist Heaven Select XI cricket team? Is the Windies supposed to win all games from now till the end of time or what?
If Windies loses this series then yes that would be a shame considering the good run of form the team has been having over the past few months.
It’s just the first ODI my friend; 4 more to go plus one T20. Try not to overreact to the result of one game.
Sammy just keeps talking and does not perform. I don’t believe windies will beat them 5-0 because first of all, they cannot bat Gazi and when you have a new bowler batting #10 hit a hundred in a test against windies, anything can happen in a 50 over game sammy. So please stop talking and let you bat and ball do the talking big boy.
All the best WI, and yah u need to perform more
i think right now the present westindies team is unbeatable south Africa & the Australia look out here comes the westindies
I think Sammy is Soo cute. And to see a small islander leading the team like this makes him even more beautiful! I’m just saying….
Cuteness has nothing to do with playing good cricket.Sammy is quite a good ODI player and i am sure he is mindful that B Desh is no push over in ODI’S.So i really want him to lead from the front and go for the whitewash.
I honestly think that you should talk less and perform a little more.
Those guys are not going to just hand it over to us
ADMIN, Windward Islands tournament starting tomorrow right here in Dominica, nothing on that? We need to support our local cricketers as well.
i support
Go on guys I know you all can knock the socks off the Bangladeshes