Confident Holder eyeing Windies clean sweep

West Indies begin their quest to reach the 2019 Cricket World Cup on Wednesday, with Jason Holder confident they can progress.

Jason Holder has challenged his West Indies side to win every game at the World Cup Qualifier and book their place in the 2019 finals.

The Windies, winners of the first two World Cups, missed out on automatic qualification for next year's competition in England after slipping down the one-day international rankings.

Three wins in the last year saw them forced to enter the qualifying tournament along with nine other nations – including Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Hong Kong.

If the former powerhouse side are to make it through, they will need to come through eight matches in Zimbabwe, and Holder has got his sights set on claiming victory in each one.

"We're looking to win every game in the tournament," he told a media conference. "We've got to do that by playing consistent cricket, we've got to take it step by step.

"We've got to make sure we take every game as it comes. We don't want to look too far or get too far ahead of ourselves. As I said, we've come here to beat every single person.

"We're really confident. Extremely confident. I think I'm really confident because we've just come off our domestic competition back at home, and a number of guys have put in a really solid performance.

"They are confident coming into this tournament. I expect really good things from them, to continue their good form that they showed in the domestic competitions."

Among Holder's squad is big-hitting veteran Chris Gayle, and the skipper expects his destructive opener to perform when the side needs him.

"He is an impact player," Holder said of Gayle. "He is one of those players that can definitely take the game away from the opposition.

"He has proven that in the past, he is a proven performer at this stage. We expect him to win some games for us, help us get through this tournament and win this tournament.

"Along with Chris, we've got some more impact players.

"We've got Marlon Samuels, Evin Lewis, and in the bowling department, we've got Sheldon Cottrell, Kemar Roach, Nikita Miller, Ashley Nurse, I mean these are a few impact players.

"If these guys have really good tournaments, the others can support them nicely."

West Indies begin their campaign against the United Arab Emirates in Harare on Tuesday.