Decreto legge 192 2005

The West Indies cricket team will tour New Zealand in February and March 2006 as part of the 2005-06 New Zealand cricket season.

Coming into the series the New Zealand Cricket Team (Black Caps) and the West Indies have had very different fortunes. The Black Caps won their recent series with Sri Lanka 3-1 whilst the West Indies, in November, were whitewashed by the Australians 3-0 and subsequently Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy.

Both New Zealand and the West Indies will be looking to win as many of the One-day Internationals as possible to improve their rankings - New Zealand and the West Indies are currently, as of January 29th, ranked fourth and eighth respectively 1. Being ranked in the top six teams means avoiding having to compete in the preliminary round of this year's ICC Champions Trophy.

New Zealand vice-captain Daniel Vettori believes his side is the favourites for this series. "I wouldn't say we're overwhelming favourites but I think we generally start as favourites against most teams at home. L 80/2005. Touring teams often take a bit of time to adapt to our conditions and I think we saw a bit of that in the way Sri Lanka began the most recent series. The Windies haven't played any one-day cricket for a while and we're in the middle of our season, so I suppose we are the team to beat. But having said that, if they find their feet they're a very good side and we'll have to play very well to win. "

The West Indian team arrived in Auckland on February 10. Soon after arriving West Indian coach Bennett King accused the ICC Future Tours Programme of "benefiting the rich at the expense of the poor".