Strewth Kiwis, we’d love to have your Baz

Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum has got the Aussies wishing he was Australian.

Our cricket-mad trans Tasman neighbours are still trying to digest Saturday’s gut-wrenching World Cup loss in Auckland where McCullum’s leadership and bravery helped New Zealand to a dramatic one-wicket win that sees them sit top of the table.

A day after the Herald-Sun ran a full back page, declaring: ‘‘ Dear New Zealand, now that you have something else to talk about, can we finally forget about the underarm thing? Yours sincerely, Australia’’, the Daily Telegraph ran a story headlined: ‘‘ Why we wish Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum was an Aussie’’.

Coming soon after being named New Zealand sportsman of the year, the glowing tribute from across the ditch is an accolade almost as big.

It listed McCullum’s six best attributes: Brains, aggression, brawn, bravery, leadership, and versatility.

The brains department was explained by his decision to use spinner Daniel Vettori to halt Australia’s early batting onslaught.

As for his aggression, the paper said ‘‘McCullum’s brashness as a leader and a batsman is more in line with an Australian characteristics’’, and quoted former Black caps skipper Stephen Fleming admitting the Kiwi public were ‘‘uncomfortable with it at first’’.

He might be small in stature but he has brawn as the Aussie’s noted with his pummelling of the Poms and his quickfire 50 at Eden Park, rocketing the Black Caps out of the gate with his masterblasting from the opening batsman’s role.

As for the bravery, well even the Aussies had to admire the way he bounced back from being hit in the arm by a Mitchell Johnson thunderbolt to carry on with his search for boundaries.

Discussing leadership, the paper went to one of Australia’s greatest captains, Ricky Ponting had this to say: ‘‘Brendon is always trying to take the game forward, and I think that is rubbing off on the rest of the side. They have plenty of quality players, but there is also a bit more belief in themselves. That’s backed up by the way they went about the run chase against England — there was something very Australian about how they went about peeling off a small total. Brendon was trying to stamp himself and his team on the tournament with the way he came out and batted. To see your captain come out and play that way would have been a really powerful thing.’’

As for versatility, they pulled out an old story that’s doing the rounds again. Overseas writers have suggested he could have played for the All Blacks, noting that in 2000 he kept Dan Carter on the bench as he starred at youth level as a No 10.

That’s probably a stretch, though the way he is playing right now, maybe the struggling Crusaders wouldn’t mind him turning out in red and black.

Brendon McCullum’s devastating form in the Cricket World Cup has the Australians wishing he was one of theirs.