THE working holiday part of India’s itinerary in the Caribbean is finished. With their World Cup opener against Bangladesh looming, Greg Chappell thinks his Indian squad are ready simply for work.“We’ve been doing cricket practice, been relaxing, swimming, sailing and snorkelling. We have been doing things you would expect to do in the West Indies, things that sometimes the guys don’t get an opportunity to do,” Chappell said.

“We’ve got acclimatised to the conditions in a measured way, now everyone is keen for the tournament to start.”

Away from the spotlight, the squad has spent two weeks in the Caribbean ahead of their opening match and Chappell says it has the time to prepare in a measured and relaxed way, something they would not be able to do back home.

Chappell said all this was “a nice change of pace from the point of view of what happens on a normal tour, particularly in India where you are playing every three days.”

He said in those situations it was hard to fit in some relaxation.

“Most of the niggles are gone, so it has just given us a chance to get ripe a bit. That’s what this time was meant for,” Chappell said after the team’s first training session in Port of Spain this week, which has been India’s happiest Caribbean venue since they won their maiden Test match against the West Indies in 1971.

Just one decisive match in the 1971 series gave India their first Test series triumph against the West Indies. Since then, India have won three more Test matches in the West Indies, and two of them were at the same Queen’s Park Oval.