Monday, September 11 2006 12:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kuala Lumpur: West Indies captain Brian Lara has asked his players to stop worrying about the hectic schedule ahead and instead treat it as an opportunity to prove them and improve the team's rankings.

"Burnout will always be a factor and there will always be a concern. I hope, however, that the guys don't miss the most important parts of the two-year period," Lara says ahead of the DLF Cup tri-series starting here on Tuesday (12 Sep, 2006).

India and Australia are the other two teams in the fray in this offshore day-night competition.

Lara's men take on three-time World Champions Australia in the series opener on Tuesday (12 Sep, 2006).

"We want to play cricket. We are languishing near the bottom of world cricket in both forms of the game, so we need to play cricket to lift our game, and we need to start winning to lift our spirits."

West Indies next travel to India for the Champions Trophy, where they are the defending champions, from October 7 to November 5. The team then proceeds to play three Tests and five one-dayers before returning to India for a five-match one-day series in January.

They then head back home to be ready in time for the World Cup in March-April on their home soil.

And those only sets the tone for the visit to England followed by the Twenty-20 World Championship in South Africa and Test series in South Africa, Zimbabwe.

"We will have burn-outs and we will have injuries at some time, but the exposure the West Indies team will be getting will be very important," Lara says.