Former New Zealand international star Brendon McCullum has shed light on the selection process to appoint a new captain in 2012, and just how insane the process was.
After Daniel Vettori stepped down from the role in 2011 following the World Cup, McCullum and Ross Taylor were both favoured for the role, but had to audition themselves for the elusive position.
When speaking to Mark Howard on his podcast The Howie Games, McCullum went into detail about just how ludicrous the process was to select a new skipper, and about what he'd do had he had that time again.
“They asked Ross and I to push our cases in a presidential style election to present Powerpoint presentations for the captaincy. It was ridiculous to be honest,” McCullum told the podcast.
“It was in a meeting room with Powerpoint presentations and all that. It was just a crock of s***. it was terrible.
“If I made a mistake anywhere along the road it was actually doing that, it’s ridiculous.
“If someone wants you as captain then they want you as captain, if they don’t well so be it, it’s not your right that you should be captain … You’re either captaincy material and someone wants you in that time or you’re not.”
Taylor was victorious in the interview and took the role from Vettori, but McCullum said no matter the result, it was always going to cause problems among the playing squad.
“What that did is it drove a wedge between those who supported Ross and him and those who supported me and myself … within the team and also outside the team,” McCullum said.
“It was difficult at the time (getting passed over as captain) … only because I felt I had something to offer. In hindsight I wasn’t ready for the captaincy either so in a strange way it’s kind of the best thing that could have happened, but it didn’t feel like that at that point in time.”
