Brendon McCullum to retire after upcoming Australia series

[Furball]

I find his decision to bow out before the World T20 surprising.

Decent player, reckon he's let himself down a bit this year compared to his 2014 but I can't think of anyone else in the game who's filled so many different roles and has been at least competent and occasionally excellent in all of them.

 

[Days of Grace]

Won't lie, I',m a bit disappointed that he didn't round things off with the World T20. But in a way it's an oddly reassuring feeling that a guy who has often been dismissed by fans (both in NZ and outside it would seem) as a T20 mercenary prototype should bring back a sort of old-school romanticism back to cricket, turn things around for his country, and sign off with a test match against the old enemy at the expense of the shorter format world cup.

Despite all his faults (and there are many), been a fan of his for his willingness to take on so many roles often to get the best out of himself but almost always with the team's interest at heart.

To jog everyone's memory, he started off in that VB series in 2002 as a very awkward top order batsman who didn't look like he belonged, but a year later he was back in the side as a keeper of flawed brilliance and inventive lower-order batting. Then came the graduation to the test side and improvement with the gloves and batting. By the time the Fleming era ended he was arguably the best keeper in the world , and moved back to the top of the order to fill the void after the departure of Fleming/Astle. Even batted at number 3 or 5 in the test side (tour to England in 2008), with some success when the side were short of quality batsmen. When the back problems surfaced (early 2010) he played for the most part as a specialist opener and actually did better than any of his peers. Then of course the captaincy and the move back to the middle order which certainly brought some unprecedented results.

While he wasn't necessarily of the first rank in most of these roles, the bottom line is it's hard to find any cricketer in recent times who was prepared to reinvent himself so much in the service of his team and career. You wish the fans who keep calling him "selfish" and "overrated" would stop to remember that. Versatile is the word for him.

Yeah, this, and Flem's post sums him up brilliantly.

I have one question and that is why do Asian batsmen especially have much longer careers than other batsmen?

Posters are talking about Taylor reitiring. He is 32 FFS. I can understand McCullum, but we are crying out for a marque batsmen to play well into his mid-30s.

The side will not stand a no.4 and no.5 retiring so close together.

 

[cnerd123]

I don't think Asian batsmen necessarily play on longer than their non-Asian counterparts. There have just been a lot of examples (Sachin, Misbah, Jayasuriya, Younis) in recent times.

Shiv was going strong in Tests at 40 too but was dropped after one bad season, Kallis retired from Tests at 38 and is still playing T20s, Ponting eventually re-discovered form after he had retired and was bashing about domestic attacks.

It's the batsmen who rely heavily on their hand-eye co-ordination and reflexes that tend to decline earlier..

 

[Days of Grace]

Won't lie, I',m a bit disappointed that he didn't round things off with the World T20. But in a way it's an oddly reassuring feeling that a guy who has often been dismissed by fans (both in NZ and outside it would seem) as a T20 mercenary prototype should bring back a sort of old-school romanticism back to cricket, turn things around for his country, and sign off with a test match against the old enemy at the expense of the shorter format world cup.

Despite all his faults (and there are many), been a fan of his for his willingness to take on so many roles often to get the best out of himself but almost always with the team's interest at heart.

To jog everyone's memory, he started off in that VB series in 2002 as a very awkward top order batsman who didn't look like he belonged, but a year later he was back in the side as a keeper of flawed brilliance and inventive lower-order batting. Then came the graduation to the test side and improvement with the gloves and batting. By the time the Fleming era ended he was arguably the best keeper in the world , and moved back to the top of the order to fill the void after the departure of Fleming/Astle. Even batted at number 3 or 5 in the test side (tour to England in 2008), with some success when the side were short of quality batsmen. When the back problems surfaced (early 2010) he played for the most part as a specialist opener and actually did better than any of his peers. Then of course the captaincy and the move back to the middle order which certainly brought some unprecedented results.

While he wasn't necessarily of the first rank in most of these roles, the bottom line is it's hard to find any cricketer in recent times who was prepared to reinvent himself so much in the service of his team and career. You wish the fans who keep calling him "selfish" and "overrated" would stop to remember that. Versatile is the word for him.

Good points made but I'm under the impression that good New Zealand players retire earlier than their international opponents.

 

[Furball]

Different era but Hadlee went on for years past the point where most fast bowlers have called it a day and moved upstairs to the commentary box to talk ****e.

 

[harsh.ag]

Have never been as invested in Baz and his exploits as many posters here, but will be sad to see him go off so early. A lot of good times with Baz, and I wish him all the best for his future.

 

[Red]

Get back to me when you learn to discuss things in a civil manor.

This is a Civil (War) Manor. Would be a lovely place to discuss things in, I'd imagine.

 

[Gob]

weird

 

[SteveNZ]

How did I know this gob****e would have his pencil sharpened, ready to take as many potshots at Brendon as he could

Mark Reason: Brendon McCullum - the entertaining showman who failed to shine when it counted | Stuff.co.nz

Note that this par: There is far too much muck attached to McCullum's captaincy for him to be forgiven by some in New Zealand cricket. When John Parker suggested that McCullum knew that Taylor was to be ousted, McCullum brought legal action against New Zealand's former captain. That was disgraceful. What right did he have potentially to drag a number of great former cricketers through a courtroom for trying to better the game in this country....Originally had something along the lines of bringing Taylor's ethnicity into it and an outrageous claim of ethnic wrong-doing, which obviously has since been edited.

I hate modern-day journalism and shock-jock columnists. I'm not suggesting we need to be sycophantic about it, Brendon had his shortcomings as we all know. But Reason has his targets, just as Rattue does, as does Mark Watson. It's pathetic.

 

[Flem274*]

When the grumpy old people found out gamers wanted to be called sportsmen mark watson went off his nut and called it a gay left wing conspiracy or something weird like that.

 

[Bahnz]

How did I know this gob****e would have his pencil sharpened, ready to take as many potshots at Brendon as he could

Mark Reason: Brendon McCullum - the entertaining showman who failed to shine when it counted | Stuff.co.nz

Note that this par: There is far too much muck attached to McCullum's captaincy for him to be forgiven by some in New Zealand cricket. When John Parker suggested that McCullum knew that Taylor was to be ousted, McCullum brought legal action against New Zealand's former captain. That was disgraceful. What right did he have potentially to drag a number of great former cricketers through a courtroom for trying to better the game in this country....Originally had something along the lines of bringing Taylor's ethnicity into it and an outrageous claim of ethnic wrong-doing, which obviously has since been edited.

I hate modern-day journalism and shock-jock columnists. I'm not suggesting we need to be sycophantic about it, Brendon had his shortcomings as we all know. But Reason has his targets, just as Rattue does, as does Mark Watson. It's pathetic.

You mean this line?

"It certainly it was an ugly episode in New Zealand cricket history, one that showed unacceptable disrespect to the Pacific community."

Still up, or maybe it's been put back up. Even when we were all frothing at the mouth, baying for McHesson's blood back in December 2012 we never thought there was a racial element to it. Because that's just ****ing stupid, and only a moron with an axe to grind would read it that way.

The worst part of it though is Reason continuing to frame the Chris Cairns trail as Cairns being a distraught victim of McCullum's malice.

Reason is an epic turd that deserves to be flushed.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

It's about ethics in gaming journalism.

 

[SteveNZ]

You mean this line?

"It certainly it was an ugly episode in New Zealand cricket history, one that showed unacceptable disrespect to the Pacific community."

Still up, or maybe it's been put back up. Even when we were all frothing at the mouth, baying for McHesson's blood back in December 2012 we never thought there was a racial element to it. Because that's just ****ing stupid, and only a moron with an axe to grind would read it that way.

The worst part of it though is Reason continuing to frame the Chris Cairns trail as Cairns being a distraught victim of McCullum's malice.

Reason is an epic turd that deserves to be flushed.

Swear that wasn't there when I posted it, yeah that's exactly the one.

Absolutely disgusting that he drew that parallel. And totally agreed on the Cairns stuff as well, if you read exclusively Mark Reason columns you'd think Brendon was on trial. Then we had Brendon's 300, where Reason incinuated that the Indians were match fixing and weren't trying, and it really didn't count because Kohli dropped a catch on 8.

Unfortunately click bait is here to stay. I await the day he goes too far and someone takes him to court for slander, but it's unlikely that anyone would want to give him that much oxygen.

 

[thierry henry]

I hate modern-day journalism and shock-jock columnists. I'm not suggesting we need to be sycophantic about it, Brendon had his shortcomings as we all know. But Reason has his targets, just as Rattue does, as does Mark Watson. It's pathetic.

Devil's advocate maybe, but: is it any less pathetic that someone with a genuinely negative impression of McCullum (which is entirely feasible) is basically unable to say as much any more because it's impossible to do so without being branded as one of dem haterz?

I'm not defending gutter journalism but at the same time, as someone who just honestly never much liked McCullum as a player or a captain or a thinker about cricket, it's very noticeable to me now that a proper discourse about his merits has become more or less impossible.

Just in general I think that when anything or anyone achieves "sacred cow" status and it becomes impossible to talk negatively about them without being accused of being a spoilsport or a hack or having an agenda of some sort, then that's a bad thing. Not being able to properly debate both sides of an argument is a bad thing.

And tbh, Brendon McCullum has absolutely no business being a sacred cow imo

 

[wellAlbidarned]

well there's talking about someone in a negative light and there's spouting absolute unreadable bull****

 

[_Ed_]

Yeah, Reason definitely tends to stray into character assassination in his McCullum articles.

 

[Bahnz]

Devil's advocate maybe, but: is it any less pathetic that someone with a genuinely negative impression of McCullum (which is entirely feasible) is basically unable to say as much any more because it's impossible to do so without being branded as one of dem haterz?

I'm not defending gutter journalism but at the same time, as someone who just honestly never much liked McCullum as a player or a captain or a thinker about cricket, it's very noticeable to me now that a proper discourse about his merits has become more or less impossible.

Just in general I think that when anything or anyone achieves "sacred cow" status and it becomes impossible to talk negatively about them without being accused of being a spoilsport or a hack or having an agenda of some sort, then that's a bad thing. Not being able to properly debate both sides of an argument is a bad thing.

And tbh, Brendon McCullum has absolutely no business being a sacred cow imo

Nah, dig into McCullum all you like about his record as a cricketer. He did underachieve as a test cricketer, and his captaincy was uneven, and it's perfectly possible to have that discussion. I don't think anyone on these forums would debate those points (though we will obviously debate their extent).

 

[NZTailender]

Williamson should assume the test captaincy for the Aussie test series; might as well bring a fresh approach to the fore now and I think he will be a very very astute and calculating captain, whereas McCullum's rash compulsive gambler schtick comes unstuck against the better sides.
McCullum still to play as the number 5 batsman in order to give him his swan song and the 100 consecutive caps thing.

lol where do you get this stuff from? A fortune cookie? Andy Moles?

 

[NZTailender]

Why is everyone surprised McCullum won't be playing the World T20? It's hardly on the same level as the world cup, and home farewells are more significant than some two-bit random world event, even if that's the format he's a giant in. Especially if we get up over the Aussies. A short format tourney where we probably won't win would be a bit of a limp balloon in comparison.

 

[NZTailender]

Nah, dig into McCullum all you like about his record as a cricketer. He did underachieve as a test cricketer, and his captaincy was uneven, and it's perfectly possible to have that discussion. I don't think anyone on these forums would debate those points (though we will obviously debate their extent).

Yeah I don't think anyone is saying Baz is an ATG on the levels of Bradman, Lara, Sobers et al, nor are they ignoring that he underachieved. Same goes for when Fleming retired. Lots of flaws and could've had a better career performance wise, but some things go beyond stats and such like impact on the game and their legacy as a sportsman, for which McCullum and Fleming will be remembered for a long time to come.