Vettori welcomes ideal World Cup preparation

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, believes the tours of Bangladesh and India in October and November will give his team an advantage over other overseas sides during the World Cup in the subcontinent early next year.

"We are going to get the best possible warm-up and any game time in the subcontinent is going to make a huge difference to our chances in the World Cup," Vettori was quoted as saying in the ICC's audio show.

New Zealand have not made a World Cup final but have been semi-finalists five times. Vettori, however, was optimistic about his team's chances in 2011. "There is some growing confidence within the team that we can win it but we know there is a lot of work to do between saying we can win it and actually doing it.

"For the New Zealand team, to win the World Cup would be the ultimate achievement. I know the preparations are going pretty well. The fact we have been to Sri Lanka, we're going to Bangladesh soon and then we play some one-dayers in India gives us the best preparation leading into such an important tournament."

New Zealand play five ODIs against Bangladesh in Mirpur with the first one on October 5. They then play three Tests and five ODIs in India. The first Test begins on November 4 in Ahmedabad.

The last time the World Cup was held in the subcontinent in 1996, New Zealand reached the quarterfinal, which they lost to Australia. But Vettori said the balance of the current side will make them challenging opponents. "I think we have some world-class players from the top of our order with Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor. We have some real experience with Scott Styris, and hopefully Kyle Mills and myself can lead a bowling attack that has a little bit of experience and some real talent.

New Zealand play five of their six World Cup league games in India, and the other in Sri Lanka.