Brendon McCullum wants Brisbane Heat to play attractive cricket

Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum known for his attacking gameplay has been roped in by the Big Bash League franchise Brisbane Heat. The ask from the new skipper will be to turn over the game of the team and to attract fans to the stadium to root for the team. He wants the team to McCullum at the helm they can expect nothing short of that.

“I want to grab hold of fans with the attractive and entertaining brand of cricket we are going to play this season,” McCullum told The Courier-Mail from New Zealand. “If anyone is in any doubt, I want people to know what they are going to get from the Heat.

He wants to be the captain who gives his team freedom to go out there and play their natural game. “The beauty about being captain is I can give the guys the freedom to go out there and chance their arms. Sometimes cricket can be strangled by fear (of failure) and that is the last thing I want.

The Brisbane franchise hasn’t managed to reflect their performance after winning the tournament in 2013 and McCullum wants to push them to get going this time. “I want to promote the Heat players to go out there and play a free and fearless game and have some fun. We want to win but the main thing is we want to provide an entertaining product.”

Two players who would certainly enjoy playing under the New Zealander are Chris Lynn and Ben Cutting. Both the players love to cut loose and will be at ease with the skipper promoting the team to play aggressive brand of cricket. “What I want to do with guys like Chris Lynn and Ben Cutting is give them the freedom to play how they want to play, even in high-pressure situations,”

The 35-year-old also said that the back injury that required him to go under the knife left him “broken” and “cooked” towards the twilight of his international career. “I had months of being on some pretty heavy painkillers, so it has been great to get my back fixed,” McCullum said.

“I will travel over to Australia on Friday and all going well I will play club cricket on Sunday.” He concluded.