As they prepare to fight their cricket battles of the future, New Zealand's cricketers will be having their Christmas Day breakfast with the soldiers of the past.

The TelstraClear Black Caps are visiting the Ranfurly Returned Services Rest Home in Auckland for breakfast with the war veterans.

It is a break from the usual Christmas Day routine where the players have tended to visit sick children in local hospitals, in Wellington where the traditional Boxing Day Tests have been played.

Team manager Jeff Crowe said he called for eight volunteers for the duty, and the whole team said they wanted to take part.

He was delighted with the response.

Team media liaison officer Simon Wilson said it was all too easy to forget thinking about senior citizens when it came to this sort of duty.

"There are a lot of cricket lovers among our old people," he said.

© CricInfo