Trelawny, March 6:

Saurav Ganguly is advising the India squad that when in the Caribbean, the best policy is to do with the locals do. The former India skipper thinks his teammates should try and relax a little and not let the long wait between arriving in the West Indies and competition frustrate their World Cup campaign.

India’s first group match is against Bangladesh on March 17, more than two weeks after they arrived for training and warmup matches. The Indians have warmup matches on Tuesday against Netherlands and on Friday against the West Indies.

Ganguly, who led India to the 2003 World Cup final, said the extra time to prepare was a bonus. “The wait’s a pretty long one, but it gives time to prepare well and strike rhythm,” said Ganguly, conceding that acclimatisation was not a problem as “conditions were similar to those back home.”

Ganguly, 34, said the test was for the team to keep its focus and train for the task ahead. “We shouldn’t worry much about things that are not in our control, such as injuries, time or weather,” Ganguly told reporters. “The practice matches would not just help the team find rhythm, but also test out a few players,” said Ganguly.

India will be eager to see their out-of-form players get back into the swing, even if the first practice game is against lowly-ranked the Netherlands. “Practice games are a good workout, they’re different than training at the nets,” said Ganguly. “The game against the Dutch gives us the chance to get a hit-out,” he said. “All sorts of things combine in helping players and teams to strike momentum,” he said.