KARACHI, Dec 1: West Indian captain Brian Lara put on a brave face after losing the Test series to Pakistan, saying his team's main focus now was on next year's one-day cricket World Cup in the Caribbean.

“Our performances in Test matches need improvement but in the one-day arena we played very good cricket and our main focus is now on the final at Barbados in the World Cup,” said Lara.

The West Indies, who play Pakistan in a five-match one-day series with the first match in Rawalpindi on December 5, have lost 39 of their 45 Tests abroad against major Test playing countries.

Yet they finished runners-up to Australia in the Champions Trophy one-day competition in October and earlier in a tri-series in Malaysia.

The West Indies only have one-day matches to play until the start of the World Cup in March-April next year and Lara said they can take some positives from the Pakistan Test series.

“I think coming to Pakistan and to play a Test series you could only be positive, it's the toughest conditions but we still have some young players coming out like (Denesh) Ramdin,” he said.

“We are not down in the dumps, we are moving to the one-day games and the game we play a lot better than the Test arena, and we remain positive about it,” said Lara, whose team is among the favourites for the World Cup 2007.

Lara said Pakistan deserved the credit for their series win.

“Of course it's disappointing to lose a series, but you have to give credit toward the end to the Pakistanis for playing tough cricket throughout, but I'm still proud of my team.

“They worked very hard after the first match and played pretty good cricket in Multan. The pitch here didn't offer us much. Of course, Pakistan adapted to the conditions better than we did.”Lara said his team needs to improve their fielding.

Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq said his team deserved the credit in general and Yousuf in particular. “The team deserves the credit for every win, but Yousuf was exceptional in this series,” said Inzamam, who also singled out paceman Umar Gul for his 16 wickets in the series.

“Umar Gul bowled well on such inconducive pitches. We were missing two of our key bowlers but Umar did well and was ably supported by Shahid Nazir and Danish Kaneria.” —AFP