Brendon McCullum opens up on his fallout with Ross Taylor

It’s been quite a while since Brendon McCullum’s cold war with Ross Taylor over the captaincy of the New Zealand cricket team. Even after nine years following the occurring, Baz reckons that it was a ‘bad stain’ in the history of the Black Caps. After veteran Daniel Vettori gave up the leadership role in 2011, Taylor was appointed as the skipper, edging out McCullum.

Taylor got the nod over McCullum after a public process and the latter wasn’t satisfied with how it went. He felt that rejecting one of the candidates by the public wasn’t something healthy for their relationship, being in the same team. However, Brendon also stated how they used to share a great camaraderie when they played for the U19s and other age group cricket.

I don’t really know what we were doing: Brendon McCullum

“That’s exactly what it was, shocking. And it some pressure on my friendship and relationship with Ross. I have played lot of development and under-age cricket with Ross. I was the captain of the U19 team and Taylor was my vice-captain. We had always got on really well,” McCullum was quoted as saying in the latest episode of our Captain’s Log podcast series

“We had to go for an interview for the job. It was about presenting the map for the future of New Zealand cricket to a panel. I don’t really know what we were doing. If had my time, I would’ve said ‘No I’m not going to come and go through the process, you appoint Ross as captain and then we’ll see what unfolds from there'”, he added.

Taylor had a torrid time as the skipper and in December 2012, McCullum was appointed as the captain across formats. Taylor was asked to stay as the skipper in a split-captaincy scenario, but he refused. “It’s a bad stain for New Zealand cricket and put pressure on Ross and me. Then it led me to eventually take over the captaincy from Ross,” he added.

McCullum’s journey as the captain began from the Kiwis’ away series against South Africa in January 2013. In 2015, he also went on to become the first New Zealand skipper to guide his side to the final of a 50-over World Cup.