Brendon McCullum backed his players when he was captain of the New Zealand cricket team and it got him stunning results. He might have retired now, but he still does not hesitate twice before getting behind his players.
The official YouTube channel of the Lord's Cricket Ground caught up with McCullum and asked him to name his All Time XI. The only criteria was that they had to be players McCullum had played with, against or been influenced by.
The batting line-up does not throw up any surprises. Chris Gayle, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Viv Richards and Adam Gilchrist make for as formidable a combination as any. Mitchell Johnson and Shane Warne are McCullum's go-to bowlers. But it's at Nos. 10 and 11, that he springs a surprise – his compatriots Tim Southee and Trent Boult appear on the list.
But here is is his reasoning.
When I was captain of New Zealand, I would always say I would never change these guys for the world. I saw them take us from a pretty average Test team to a much harder-to-beat Test team because of their ability to get 20 wickets.
Of course, McCullum did admit that some concessions would have to be made:
Tim Southee's batting has got to improve so for a while, Boult may have to take over at No. 11 but if there's a bit of swing on offer, those two will exploit it.
Boult and Southee are currently in the New Zealand team that is touring South Africa. In a rain-curtailed first Test at Durban, Boult bowled with fire and venom to take 3/52 in South Africa's first innings.
