Brendon McCullum’s Indelible Impact on New Zealand Cricket

Brendon McCullum’s Indelible Impact on New Zealand Cricket

The New Zealand captain built a team that has become one of the world’s most thrilling to watch and frightening to face

Nothing could sum up New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum’s international cricket career quite as well as the way he ended it. In his adoptive home of Christchurch last month, in a Test match against Australia, he blasted the fastest century in Test history.

Coming in with his side at a worrisome 32-2, McCullum required just 54 balls to reach the mark, beating a previous record of 56 set by Viv Richards in 1986 and matched by Misbah-ul-Haq in 2014.

McCullum was a fearlessly aggressive cricketer even in an age of attacking excess. In his batting and in his captaincy, he was always prepared to throw the dice. He built a team in his own image that has become one of the world’s most thrilling to watch and frightening to face. It’s hard to overstate the impact McCullum has had on New Zealand cricket.

Once a plucky, under-resourced overachiever, it has become one of the world’s leading teams in every format by playing a brand of utterly fearless attacking.

As a captain, McCullum would always go for a wicket, sometimes placing an implausible number of fielders in the slips without defaulting to a defensive field once a couple of boundaries were hit. In One Day Internationals, he reacted to an opposition wicket by going for the kill with his best bowlers, while most captains would have used the arrival of a new batsman as a chance to burn a few with a lesser bowler.

The culmination of New Zealand’s recent rise was its thrilling run to the 2015 World Cup final. Nothing typified McCullum’s approach better than its group-stage victory over Australia. His side dismissed the Australians for just 151 at Auckland’s Eden Park. First, McCullum dried up a brisk Australian start with the early introduction of left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori. Then, with Australia 96-4 after 17 overs, he brought back Trent Boult, who had already bowled five overs. Boult took five wickets in his next three overs.

But more than just attacking on the field, McCullum was a great leader because he brought the best out in other players. He was made captain in controversial circumstances in 2012 with the team at a low ebb and losing consistently. McCullum dropped his first Test series in charge with two big innings defeats to South Africa, but turned it around so quickly that the team recently went two years unbeaten in a series, including a record 13 consecutive undefeated home Tests. He finishes with the best win-loss ratio as New Zealand ODI captain, and close to the best in Tests.

McCullum took over a team that had Ross Taylor as its only world-class performer. Under his watch, the likes of Boult, Kane Williamson, Tim Southee, Martin Guptill, BJ Watling, Doug Bracewell, Matt Henry and Corey Anderson have all become formidable established internationals. Along with other figures such as coach Mike Hesson, he shaped a culture in which young players came into the team and performed immediately, knowing they had support.

McCullum’s approach to captaincy was neatly mirrored by his philosophy on batting.

He was a trailblazer for the kind of approach that has gone mainstream in the post-T20 world. And even in a game increasingly populated by destructive hitters, he has stood out as one of the most watchable batsmen in world cricket, possessed of whiplash wrists and an attacking mind-set.

In form, he was almost impossible to bowl to. He would charge down the pitch, often hitting over the top. Then, as soon as the bowlers were tempted to drop short, they were imperiously pummeled over the leg side and through point. McCullum was also a brilliant improviser and one of the first to master the panoply of scoops, ramps and paddles behind the wicketkeeper that have become such a key component of limited-overs batting.

His fearlessness was allied to a sense of occasion—he tended to bring out his big innings at the times when they’d make the most impact: this final Test; that World Cup; the first ever game of the newly hatched Indian Premier League in Bengaluru in 2008; and his crowning glory, the 2014 Test against India in Wellington. McCullum hit a 559-ball 302 to save the game, the first ever Test triple century by a New Zealander.

He also played all of his 101 Tests in a consecutive streak, the most for an uninterrupted career, and was a fine wicketkeeper for 52 of them. McCullum later became a brilliant outfielder when the deteriorating condition of his back made keeping impractical.

In terms of reshaping a team, McCullum’s only rival is Pakistan captain Misbah. But where Misbah steadied the Pakistani ship, refining it into a remorseless Test-winning machine, McCullum pulled off a Kiwi transformation. He turned around a team that had never won a major tournament, produced only a handful of world-class players and lost many more games than it had won. In other words, McCullum made a greater individual impact to improve an international team than anyone in a generation.

Courtesy : wsj