Their whereabouts is not entirely obvious when you arrive there; it is only by checking the list of businesses in the building on the wall of the lobby that you realise you are in the right spot.

Its commercial base sums up a cricket nation spending within its limited means, but latterly punching well above its weight.

Compare the set-up with Saturday's World Cup rivals Australia and you get an idea what New Zealand is up against.

Cricket Australia reported record revenue of $295 million last October. CNZ turns over about $50 million a year, and that is Kiwi dollars, not that there is a great deal of difference right now as Australian fans in Auckland for the match at Eden Park have quickly realised. Its broadcast deals add up to a fraction of Australia's $1 billion combined arrangements at home and abroad.

In its aforementioned offices and its high-performance centre at Lincoln University, it employs between 45 and 50 permanent staff; CA has at least 200 full-timers on the books between its Jolimont headquarters and the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, and that is not counting the states. CA claims more than 1.1 million people play cricket in Australia; New Zealand has 110,000.

Then there is what is landing in the players' pockets. Australia's top players, Michael Clarke and the like, have base salaries in excess of $1.5 million, and even those on the lower end of the scale are taking home well north of $200,000 without match payments and bonuses coming into the equation. New Zealand's 20 contracted players are on central deals worth between $79,000 and $195,000.

Little wonder that over here across the ditch they see the Australians as their big brothers.

"We're very small, we haven't got as much money as the big boys, so we have to be a bit more creative," NZC chief executive David White said.

Exhibit A is their approach to the Indian Premier League. Australia has been anxious in the past about particular players heading there in April and May if it is before a heavy winter schedule, and even dug into its deep pockets and offered players incentives not to go.

New Zealand, unable to further compensate its own international players, takes a pragmatic view when it comes to the cash being thrown around there. This week it was announced that its nine IPL players would not be turning up in England in May until two days before their first Test at Lord's.

Not ideal, by any means, but when Trent Boult is collecting an extra $800,000, the sum he was bought for in this month's auction by Hyderabad, the Kiwi administration cannot complain.

"While some countries take a negative view to the IPL, we think it's fantastic because guys can get a lot more money and that kind of takes a lot of pressure off us," White said. "The guys are getting very good money to play in the IPL and can supplement their New Zealand cricket income, and we just can't pay them a lot more, unfortunately."

The Black Caps, of course, are far from the poorest paid players at this World Cup. None of them are working for an airline, as does the UAE veteran Khurram Khan, or paying the bills with a real job, like plenty of others in the associate teams.

And ranked fifth in the world in Tests and the one-day game, and considered a red-hot chance to win a first World Cup, they are managing to squeeze a lot out of the wealth they do have.

White points to their combination of captain and coach as a key factor in their recent steady rise after a "nadir" a few years back when they were outside the top half-dozen teams in all formats.

Brendon McCullum's ascent was a messy one – he was initially offered the one-day and Twenty20 captaincy in late 2012 but ended up with the lot when Ross Taylor rejected the split-leadership concept and opted out of a tour of South Africa amid reports of drama between Taylor and coach Mike Hesson.

"It's well documented it was a difficult time," White said. "The decision was made and we said at the time we probably could have communicated it better than we did. But that's history now and what you've got now is a very capable and quite low-profile coach and quite an inspirational, outstanding captain.

"I think he's a natural leader, Brendon. He's charismatic, he's very intelligent, very creative on the field and I think what he's done over the last two years speaks for itself."

The balance between McCullum and Hesson is an interesting one given what has been in the news about their Australian counterparts. Hesson, 40, previously coached Kenya and was to many a surprise choice, having never played first-class cricket, let alone at international level. Diminutive in stature, he has great power – he is the Kiwis' sole selector; they have a selection manager, Bruce Edgar, but Hesson is the only one with power of veto – but prefers to operate in the background. McCullum is unquestionably the public face of the team and almost a figure of awe to his teammates.

"Whatever he preaches to us he goes out and does," wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi said. "The stuff he does on field, chasing the ball down and putting his body on the line, is what you want everyone to do, and when you see McCullum doing that it makes everyone else realise we've got to pull our fingers out.

"When it comes to his captaincy, he's just very aggressive – he wants to take wickets. He puts fielders in places where others won't; sometimes it's over-aggressive, other times it works out beautifully. He's a massive reason for the way we've been playing recently. We just believe in what he's thinking and follow him wherever he needs us to go."

McCullum is hoping to lead them to a landmark win over Australia on Saturday.

The Kiwis' office might be a bit hard to find but if they can pinch victory over Clarke's men, and perhaps wind up in next month's World Cup final in Melbourne, this team, and New Zealand cricket, will truly be back on the map.