Daniel Vettori says New Zealand's upcoming tour of Bangladesh will be difficult, despite 13 of Bangladesh's leading players walking out on their national team to join the Indian Cricket League (ICL).
New Zealand depart in a fortnight for a trip that will include two Tests and three one-day internationals and their captain Vettori said he was still wary of a potential upset.
"The expectations are on us to win and that's fair enough," Vettori told the New Zealand Herald.
"But Bangladesh can be a tricky country to tour."
On New Zealand's only other Test tour of Bangladesh, in 2004-05, they wrapped up innings victories in both matches. However, Vettori said it was worth remembering that less than two years later Bangladesh nearly beat Australia in a Test in Fatullah.
He also noted that while the hosts have lost several batsmen to the new ICL team the Dhaka Warriors, their bowling attack had not been greatly affected.
But the departures of key players including Aftab Ahmed, Shahriar Nafees and Dhiman Ghosh will weaken a team that has already struggled in the Test arena. Bangladesh have won only one of their 53 Tests but Vettori said it was important the stronger teams continued to schedule series against Bangladesh to help them improve.
"You look at history and how long it took New Zealand to start to perform consistently, and countries like Sri Lanka," he said. "You have to give Bangladesh due respect. I'm not going to sit here and say they're not good enough. They need to be given opportunities to try and progress."
New Zealand's batsmen meet in Christchurch next week for a training camp while the bowlers with gather in Auckland ahead of the tour.
The first one-day international is in Dhaka on October 9, while the Test series begins in Chittagong on October 17.
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