For once, Brendon McCullum’s timing may be imprudent
Aggressive intent: New Zealand's Brendon McCullum - Pic AP
When I heard a couple of months back that Brendon McCullum was retiring I was shocked. The guy is only 34 and playing so well. And his team is really starting to make an impact in all forms of international cricket. And why would you retire just before aWorld Twenty20 and give no chance to Kane Williamson, who is yet to be proved as a skipper? I must state for the record that Bazz McCullum is a mate of mine. I have always enjoyed his company and he is one of those guys always prepared to buy a beer for everyone. He has always been a ripper bloke. In a weird way, his idols are the same as mine. He loved Allan Border for his toughness and how he changed the Australian team around and he adored Viv Richards for his style and brilliant ball striking.
Bazz has had a topsy-turvy career. The results of his batting brilliance have at times been mixed – pure genius with some mindless aggression. But overall, I have always loved his attitude. Wherever the ball is bowled, he always thought he had a shot in his bag to hit it for a six or four. He hated defence and it was never his priority. It was all about aggression. This mindset probably cost him a good score in the final of last year’s World Cup. Bazz’s stand-out feature was his pure ball striking. When he hit the ball it sounded different off the bat and it regularly went for six. His powerful technique, balance and poise are great examples for any kid wanting to be a successful power player in limited-overs cricket. I loved how his intent put a lot of pressure on bowlers. His attitude was to hurt them before they hurt him. That scared the daylights out of most bowlers.
Unfortunately, many people will remember how McCullum gained the captaincy from Ross Taylor in Sri Lanka in December 2012. While Taylor was compiling a hundred, a coup de grace was being organised. New Zealand won that Test match but New Zealand Cricket went with coach Mike Hesson’s belief that a change of captaincy was needed. This action understandably split the New Zealand cricketing community. . Past captains voicing their opinions were about to be issued with legal proceedings from McCullum and Hesson until McCullum called a truce!
I have no doubt if Bazz and Hesson had their time again, they would have done it in a different manner. It is never a great time when a captain gets the bullet. Let’s not forget how Kim Hughes was also treated so shabbily by Cricket Australia at the time of his resignation. He received no support from the board, then or since.
Time heals all wounds and Taylor and McCullum resolved their differences. Following the inspiration of Border’s leadership, McCullum went about changing the game style of the New Zealand team in all formats. His style was all about aggression and he pushed his players’ mindsets to be more aggressive in their stroke play and to have a belief that they can win from anywhere. That McCullum self-belief was so evident during the second Test against India at Wellington in 2014. When the Kiwis lost their third wicket at 52 and were still 194 runs behind, McCullum strode to the crease and smashed a brilliant triple hundred, becoming the first Kiwi batsman to pass that milestone, saving the Test and steering NZ out of trouble.
There is no doubt that captaincy made McCullum as a player. In Test cricket, McCullum has averaged 35 with the bat overall, but more than 45 as skipper. He took the Kiwis to their first World Cup final and changed their mindset on how they played the game. The death of Phil Hughes affected him and the Kiwi team greatly. During their Test against Pakistan in Sharjah in November 2014, McCullum instructed his team not to bowl one bouncer to the Pakistan batsmen and to only appeal if a batsman was out. New Zealand won that match and McCullum made a brilliant double hundred, but didn’t raise his bat to celebrate. He felt it wasn’t the appropriate time as the cricket world was still in mourning.
The burning question I would love to ask Bazz is why he decided to retire now? Couldn’t he have delayed his decision until after the World Twenty20? He must know that the Kiwis are in with a show to win it. His country needs him in India as he has played so well there.
The Kiwis will be a weakened side with McCullum’s absence and it has left no time for next-in-line Williamson to get used to being an international captain. Will the captaincy affect how Williamson plays? Time will tell. Will the game miss McCullum? Absolutely. The game will miss his cavalier strokeplay and his integrity towards the game. He is the only player to have hit more than 200 sixes in one-day internationals and more than 100 sixes in Test cricket.
He was an interesting and yet contradictory cricketer. McCullum physically displayed an interesting combination of tattoos and piercings, yet he loved all of the game’s traditions. McCullum’s first rule as skipper was to protect the reputation, integrity and “the spirit of the game”. This will be his legacy to future Kiwi captains. Let’s not forget he was the main guy from New Zealand to give evidence in the recent Chris Cairns perjury trial.McCullum has never beaten Australia in a Test match as captain. Can the Kiwis give McCullum that one last hurrah and win a Test series against his nemesis? If that happens, then surely, he will be remembered as one of New Zealand’s greatest captains.www.theage.com.au