The cricketing year McCullum made his own
IF 2014 was the Chinese year of the horse, then New Zealand Cricket witnessed the year of the Baz. Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum galloped into most on-and-off-field headlines in a remarkable 12 months that left cricket followers amazed and sometimes aghast.
The high point on the feelgood scale was February 18, a gloomy Wellington morning where lawyers and labourers alike flocked up Cambridge Tce then through the creaky Basin Reserve turnstiles.
McCullum, 281 not out against India overnight, made history as New Zealand’s first triplecenturion and no-one wanted the prolonged ovation to end.
For impact on the broader public it was hard to top, as New Zealand’s best cricketing moment at home, at the scene of Sir Richard Hadlee’s 300th test wicket and the breakthrough win over England in 1978.
McCullum ended 2013 with questions over his form and creaky back, which he felt could force an early end to his career.
A year later, in the current test against Sri Lanka, he became the first New Zealander to score 1000 test runs in a year and broke his own record for the country’s fastest hundred (74 balls). He joined Don Bradman and Michael Clarke in scoring two doubles and a triplecentury in that period.
McCullum’s first 200 was at Eden Park in the pulsating first test win over India, then was topped by the perplexing Sharjah test where Australian batsman Phillip Hughes’ sudden and shocking death changed everything.
Suddenly the Black Caps were carefree world-beaters with misty eyes while Pakistan were somewhere else.
McCullum smashed 202 off 188 balls and New Zealand sealed one of their most comprehensive victories by an innings and 80 runs, to level the series.
Off the pitch, the spotlight illuminated cricket’s dark side as McCullum and former team-mates Chris Cairns and Lou Vincent became central figures in leak and counterleak, claim and counter-claim.
Cairns was McCullum’s mate, verging on his idol, when they played for New Zealand together.
Now the pair are poised to go head to head in a London court in October after McCullum confirmed he would testify at Cairns’ trial for perjury, after the former allrounder won damages from Indian cricket supremo Lalit Modi over allegations of match-fixing.
McCullum gave sworn evidence to anticorruption investigators that ‘‘Player X’’, later identified as Cairns, approached him in India, then England, in 2008 to fix. McCullum declined.
Cairns went on the attack, denying any wrongdoing and labelled evidence by Vincent and Vincent’s ex-wife as ‘‘despicable lies’’.
It will get ugly. Cairns spoke of ‘‘dark forces’’ at play and said it was extraordinary that McCullum took three years to report his alleged approach. McCullum was poised to answer that question at a
The relief is palpable and the Basin Reserve crowd rises to Brendon McCullum as he becomes the first New Zealand batsman to reach the magical 300, in the second test against India in February. Christchurch press conference but was bizarrely cut off by his chief executive, David White.
Vincent gushed forth and was banned, confessing to spot fixing in English county cricket.
In pages and pages of gripping, mind-boggling testimony, he spoke of bags of cash, dodgy characters and honey traps, also pointing the finger at ‘‘Player X’’ for being the fixing ringleader at the Indian Cricket League in 2008 and carrying on to county cricket.
Amid all the drama, the Black Caps had one of their best years under McCullum’s bold, cerebral captaincy, winning test series against India (home) and West Indies (away), and storming back in Sharjah after a heavy first test loss in Abu Dhabi.
The new boys shone in the Caribbean; Tom Latham nailing down an opener’s spot with a prolific series, spinner Mark Craig winning man of the match in Kingston, and Jimmy Neesham turning the deciding test in Barbados.
The 4-0 one-day series win over world champions India in January seemed to elevate the public perception of the team from flaky to genuine force, worthy of backing.
The blueprint that will see them contend at the World Cup was unveiled, as Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor plundered big runs and then a crop of hungry fast bowlers attacked at will and McCullum shuffled the chess pieces.
Portents for a good 2014 were strong when Corey Anderson and Jesse Ryder lit up New Year’s Day in Queenstown.
Anderson blasted the West Indies bowlers for a world record 36-ball century and Ryder smote a relatively sedate 46-ball ton.
Anderson labelled it a ‘‘lifechanging innings’’ which shot him to worldwide headlines and saw him fetch $866,000 at the Indian Premier League auction with the Mumbai Indians.
For Ryder, the rollercoaster ride continued then eventually tipped him off.
Back in the Black Caps, he was dropped for going out drinking with Doug Bracewell on the eve of the Auckland test, and was not considered again till November.
Back from Essex and bludgeoning bowlers at will, he was picked in the New Zealand A side to tour the United Arab Emirates as aWorld Cup trial but Ryder shot himself in the foot again.
He went out drinking in Dunedin, did not show for Otago’s flight to Christchurch then withdrew from New Zealand A days before departure for ‘‘personal reasons’’. His name was missing from New Zealand’s World Cup 30 and is unlikely to feature on a Black Caps team list in the foreseeable future.
There was a high-profile resurrection, too. Daniel Vettori looked gone for all money but got himself fit and injury-free for his first one-day international in 16 months at Mt Maunganui, against South Africa, with an eye to a World Cup swansong.
Then, he accepted a mercy call from McCullum in Sharjah to bowl in a three-spin attack, playing his first test in more than two years and pipping Stephen Fleming to a record 112 New Zealand appearances.
Williamson led the Black Caps in the one-day games against Pakistan as McCullum rested and continued to plunder as he passed Fleming’s New Zealand record of 1658 international runs in a year in all formats, set in 2004. Williamson was also cleared to bowl his off-spin again after remodelling his action, having become the first New Zealander to be banned for chucking in July amid an International Cricket Council crackdown on bendy elbows.
In domestic cricket, Northern Districts represented the country at the Twenty20 Champions League and matched Otago in making the main draw.
Canterbury won the Plunket Shield on the back of Latham’s prolific form while Wellington broke a 10-year title drought to win the 50-over crown, then backed it up by beating Auckland in the T20 final to book their spot in India.