KEY POINTS:
New Zealand will open next month's World Cup campaign against England in an ominous repeat of their first-round draw from the 1983 and 1996 tournaments.
The schedule for the first World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean comprises 51 matches over the course of 47 days, beginning with the opening match between the hosts and Pakistan in Jamaica on March 13.
Based in St Lucia for the group stage, New Zealand will play warm-up matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka before squaring off against England on March 16 - five days after the opening ceremony.
They will then prepare themselves for what should be guaranteed wins over Kenya on March 20 and Canada on March 22.
The Black Caps are the new world No 3 seeds and leave for the West Indies next Wednesday. Their new, elevated status, putting them on a par with Pakistan, follows their stunning clean-sweep of Australia.
New Zealand have never won the World Cup - but they have a proud record over their eight previous campaigns. They reached the semifinals in 1975, 1979, 1992 and 1999.
In fact, they would have almost certainly qualified for the last four in the 2003 tournament as well, but for their decision against travelling to Nairobi to play Kenya at the preliminary stage.
New Zealand's best World Cup effort came in the 1992 semifinals, when Inzamam ul-Haq broke Kiwi hearts with a late, match-winning innings at Eden Park.
That was the tournament in which the Warren Lees-Martin Crowe ticket led their side to seven wins in eight pool games before eventually losing to Imran Khan's Pakistan by four wickets.
New Zealand lost by five wickets to Clive Lloyd's West Indians at The Oval in the semifinals of the inaugural World Cup in 1975.
The Windies carried on to win the tournament after Lloyd made 102 off 85 balls in what has been described as the greatest World Cup innings.
Under Mark Burgess' captaincy, New Zealand almost made the final at the next tournament but were beaten by just nine runs at Old Trafford by England - who later lost to the West Indies by 92 runs.
For all that, two of New Zealand's least successful campaigns were in 1983 and 1996, when they failed to qualify for the last four after being drawn to play England in their first match.
To add some spice to the upcoming contest at St Lucia, New Zealand suffered upset defeats at the hands of the English during the recent tri-series in Australia, when they were out-pointed in their second match at Hobart and - even more gallingly - in a sudden death outing at Brisbane. And while jubilant New Zealand supporters will take comfort from this week's effort against the world champions, England fans will be quick to point out that they twice beat an even stronger Australian line-up while winning the tri-series final.
The format for this year's tournament sees the top two teams from each of the four groups qualify for the second round Super Eights, where they will play each of the remaining sides - except for the team that advanced from their own first-round group.
Teams who qualify for the Super Eights will carry through flag points earned only against the other qualifier from their group, meaning New Zealand might progress with the points won against England, but not those collected against Kenya or Canada.
The Super Eight stage of the tournament, which begins on March 27, will be played in Antigua, Guyana, Grenada and Barbados.
The top four teams from the Super stage will then advance to the semifinals in Jamaica on April 24 and St Lucia on April 25.
The final will take place at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on April 28.
Defending champions Australia will launch their campaign with a Group A match against Scotland in St Kitts on March 14, before playing the Netherlands on March 18 and top-ranked South Africa on March 24.
India and Sri Lanka, who have won the tournament in previous years, are expected to progress from Group B, as are Group D favourites Pakistan and the West Indies.
