Australia touch down in the West Indies

After almost two days of travel Australia have landed in St Vincent to begin their final preparations for the World Cup defence. The squad, which is missing Adam Gilchrist, left Sydney on Wednesday and stopped off in Los Angeles, Miami and Barbados before reaching its destination.

Australia, who will have their first practice on Saturday, will play a warm-up match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday and a friendly against England next Friday before heading to Jamaica for the opening ceremony on March 11. Scotland will be Australia's first opponent in St Kitts on March 14 before matches against The Netherlands and South Africa complete the group stage.

Michael Clarke, who missed the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy last month with a hip injury, said he was desperate for some game time. "I'm looking forward to getting there, getting into some training," Clarke told AAP at Barbados. "I feel like I've done nothing for six months after having missed New Zealand, so I'm looking forward to getting back into it."

Gilchrist is expected to arrive in St Vincent early next week after staying in Perth following the birth of his third child. Andrew Symonds is also due to test out his injured arm for the first time while batting over the weekend.