MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA, Mar 3 (NNN-PTI) -- The Indian cricket team arrived here with hopes of reclaiming the World Cup after nearly a quarter century when the ninth edition of the quadrennial event starts in the Caribbean on Mar 13.

The 15-member squad led by Rahul Dravid reached the picturesque sea resort Thursday (early hours of Friday in India) accompanied by support staff and officials.

After playing two warm-up matches, India kick-off their campaign with their opening Group B encounter against Bangladesh on Mar 17 at Port of Spain, Trinidad.

India's two practice matches would be against The Netherlands (Mar 6) and hosts West Indies (Mar 9) at the Trelawny stadium here.

The league opener is slated to be held at India's happy hunting Test ground, Queen's Park Oval.

India are scheduled to play their remaining two Group ties also at the same venue, on Mar 19 (v Bermuda) and Mar 23 (v Sri Lanka).

The top two teams from each of the four preliminary groups advance to the Super Eight stage from Mar 27.

India won the game's biggest prize in 1983 under Kapil Dev in England.

They reached the semi-finals in 1987 and 1996, both in the sub continent, and were finalists in 2003 in South Africa.

The Indian squad: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan and S Sreesanth.

Coach: Greg Chappell.

--NNN-PTI