Wednesday, September 20 2006 11:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: Captain Brian Lara has voiced confidence in his under performing West Indies team, who he says are determined to claw their way back up the world rankings.

The once-dominant West Indians have faded over the past decade and plunged to eighth in the official rankings.

But Lara believes they are again starting to gel, with their confidence buoyed by reaching the final of the DLF Cup tri-series in Malaysia that also features world No.1 Australia and world No.4 India.

"Some people don't seem to have much confidence in my players, but I do," says the 37-year-old batting legend, who is in his third stint as captain.

"We are not highly ranked in the world and we really are focused on getting up there."

"I feel it is going to come right. The players played pretty well on Monday (in beating Australia)."

Batting has been the major West Indies concern here, with middle-order collapses always a threat once Lara, Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are back in the pavilion. Lara, though, is happy with the way they are progressing ahead of their defence of the Champions Trophy next month.

"I was happy with our batting. There was a bit of a hiccup at the end again but we have got some time now to work on it," he says.

"The guys are still finding their footing but hopefully more practice and we can get it right."

"(Dwayne) Bravo took his time to get in and he batted really well, and the likes of Wavell Hinds and Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels, these guys have scored runs already so I expect them to come good at some point."

"The confidence is up now and I think the guys are going to knit together and get something going."

The West Indies won the Champions Trophy in 2004 but find themselves having to qualify next month alongside Bangladesh and Zimbabwe after playing some ordinary cricket in the past two years.

"The fact that we've played bad cricket since our success at the Champions Trophy in 2004 puts us in the position where we have to qualify. That's unfortunate, but to get to the final here is fantastic for our confidence," he says.

"We're not going to take Bangladesh and Zimbabwe lightly. We've still got to qualify but this tournament is setting us right for that part of it."