The draw for the twenty20 Champions League has been released and Otago will open its campaign against the Faisalabad Wolves on September 17.
The following day it will play the Sri Lanka champion, not the Dhaka Gladiators as previously reported.
The last-round robin match in the qualifying stage is against Indian Premier League franchise the Hyderabad Sunrisers on September 20.
All of Otago's games are in Hyderabad. The top two teams from the qualifying stage will progress to the group stage, which gets under way on September 21 when the IPL champion the Mumbai Indians plays the Rajasthan Royals.
Otago coach Vaughn Johnson said planning could really begin in earnest now. The Volts will play five warm-up matches against a combined New Zealand and Northern Districts team in Tauranga in mid-August and will complete their preparation in Sri Lanka with some further fixtures, he said.
''We only had confirmation overnight [Tuesday], so now we know September 17 is the date we work back from,'' he said.
''We want to be in India by the 10th, hopefully. That is a seven-day lead-up in Indian conditions. That should give us plenty of time to be bang on for the 17th.''
Johnson felt the Hyderabad Sunrisers shaped as the toughest competition but said the team was still compiling its scouting reports.
''It still has to be confirmed who is going from Sri Lanka but the Pakistan side [Faisalabad Wolves] should be strong.
''We are just in the process of doing a bit of scouting at the moment. But we've had a good build-up for this.
''We won a lot of twenty games last season because we got on a roll and we are hoping we'll get back to that by the 17th.''
Otago won 10 consecutive twenty20 games to clinch the New Zealand title last summer.
Overseas player Ryan ten Doeschate was one of the leading contributors. He was the competition's second-highest scorer with 401 runs at an average of 50.12.
Fellow import James Fuller also made an impact. He took 13 wickets at 22.07 and was part of an Otago bowling attack which was dominant.
Both Fuller and ten Doeschate play county cricket and their availability is uncertain.
Former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee played one game for Otago and has qualified for selection.
''The real dilemma is not knowing whether the imports will be available until late in the piece. We are banking on having as many of those pros as we can. It just really depends what happens in the county competition over the next month or so.''
