Captain Brendon McCullum says he has never been part of a better nor more desperate New Zealand side heading into the cricket World Cup.

McCullum, whose 14-year international career takes in three World Cup campaigns, believes the Black Caps have the players to win the 14-nation tournament which begins on Saturday when they play the opener against Sri Lanka in Christchurch.

Just as importantly, they have developed a game plan and built a belief in it to handle setbacks and injuries which are bound to arise at the six-week event.

“The personnel within the group is as good as what I’ve been involved in,” he said.

“The good thing is the style of play now is becoming so ingrained with the group as well, that the personnel may change at times, but the style is pretty consistent.

“We know what is going to give us our greatest chance toward success and we go about doing that.”

Home series wins over Sri Lanka (4-2) and Pakistan (2-0) over the past month and the absence of serious injuries have New Zealand nicely primed although McCullum says the tournament co-hosts remain grounded.

They will use unofficial warm-up games in Christchurch against Zimbabwe on Monday and South Africa on Wednesday to fine-tune for the Sri Lankans, who will have paceman Lasith Malinga fit for the opener.

McCullum senses his teammates have already put their recent success behind them and are showing a steely determination not always apparent in previous Black Caps teams.

“This is a group which is desperate to represent New Zealand and perform on the international stage and start challenging the better teams around the world,” he said.

“We’ve made some significant strides in the last few months especially, and we’re starting to achieve some special things. It would be great if we could swallow a World Cup along the way.”

McCullum says Australia and South Africa loom as the strongest all-round teams at the tournament at this stage but other teams have match-winners scattered throughout, making it the most open World Cup in his time.