From 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, more than 26 years, for its first Test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland.

[18] As of 2022, the team has participated in all the 29 ICC Men's events taking place from 1975 onwards and have made six final appearances out of which they won two titles.

Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle wrote:[21] several young men redeemed by the missionaries from slavery were employed on the farm.

On 15–17 February 1894 the first team representing New Zealand played New South Wales at Lancaster Park in Christchurch.

New Zealand played its first two internationals (not Tests) in 1904–05 against a star-studded Australia team containing such players as Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong and Clem Hill.

For most of this period New Zealand lacked a class bowler to lead their attack although they had two excellent batsmen in Bert Sutcliffe and Glenn Turner and a great all-rounder in John R. Reid.

During the 1980s New Zealand also had the services of one of its best-ever batsman, Martin Crowe and a number of good players such as John Wright, Bruce Edgar, John F. Reid, Andrew Jones, Geoff Howarth, Jeremy Coney, Ian Smith, John Bracewell, Lance Cairns, Stephen Boock, and Ewen Chatfield, who were capable of playing the occasional match-winning performance and consistently making a valuable contribution to a Test match.

In one-day cricket a batsman does not need to score centuries to win games for his side and bowlers do not need to bowl the opposition out.

These were requirements New Zealand players could consistently meet and thus developed a good one-day record against all sides.

Requiring six runs to tie the match off the final ball, Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his brother Trevor to bowl the ball underarm along the wicket to prevent New Zealand batsman Brian McKechnie from hitting a six.

The Australian umpires ruled the move as legal even though to this day many believe it was one of the most unsporting decisions made in cricket.

When New Zealand next played in the tri-series in Australia in 1983, Lance Cairns became a cult hero for his one-day batting.

Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan also scored plenty of runs for New Zealand, but both retired earlier than expected.

Daniel Vettori made his debut as an 18-year-old in 1997, and when he took over from Fleming as captain in 2007 he was regarded as the best spinning all-rounder in world cricket.

On 26 August 2009, Daniel Vettori became the eighth player and second left-arm bowler (after Chaminda Vaas) in history to take 300 wickets and score 3000 test runs, joining the illustrious club.

New Zealand gained direct entry to quarter-finals where they faced Zimbabwe against whom they had recently lost an ODI series, after a nervy start they pulled things back and romped to a crushing 64-run victory to get through to the semis.

In semis they faced Pakistan, a team who had managed to knock New Zealand out from last World Cup at this very stage.

New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl but the decision seemed to backfire as India romped to a 141 run opening partnership in 27 overs, New Zealand somehow managed to pull things back but the target was a daunting 265, and in reply they struggled for the most part of their innings but in the end, it was a 122-run partnership between Chris Cairns and Chris Harris that took them close the target before Cairns finished the game with two balls to spare as New Zealand won its first-ever ICC event.

When fit, he added a dimension to the NZ bowling attack that had been missing since Hadlee retired, taking 87 wickets at an average of 22.09.

The BCCI managed to convince other boards not to pick players who had joined the rival Twenty-20 Indian Cricket League.

NZ Cricket lost the services of Shane Bond, Lou Vincent, Andre Adams, Hamish Marshall and Daryl Tuffey.

Vettori stood down as Test captain in 2011 leading to star batsman Ross Taylor to take his place.

In 2012/13 Brendon McCullum became captain and new players such as Kane Williamson, Corey Anderson, Doug Bracewell, Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham emerged as world-class performers.

New Zealand lost both series by 2–0[36] In February 2016, Kane Williamson was appointed as the captain of the team after Brendon McCullum's retirement after playing his 101st test against Australia at Christchurch.

Williamson's first international series as the full-time captain was Men's T20 World Cup 2016 in India in which the team won all four of its group games but lost to England in the semi-final at Delhi.

New Zealand started the 2017 international season with a tri-series involving hosts Ireland, and Bangladesh as a preparation for upcoming Champions Trophy in England.

After that the team had to wait four months for their next tour which was to India in which both the ODI and T20I series were closely contested but New Zealand lost both by a scoreline of 2–1.

New Zealand produced a stunning act of resilience to register their first away test series win against Pakistan after 49 years.

New Zealand had a terrific start to their World Cup campaign as they remained unbeaten and top of the table for their first six games.

In ICC limited-overs tournaments, a modified kit design is used with sponsor's logos moving to the sleeve and 'NEW ZEALAND' printed across the front.