Brendon McCullum by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:

BB McCullum

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DateLine: 18th April 2009

 

Brendon McCullum has stepped up to the national side as a wicketkeeper-batsman after an outstanding career in international youth cricket, where he proved capable of dominating opposition attacks. He found it hard to replicate that at the highest level at first, although there were occasional fireworks at domestic level. But he finally made his mark in England in 2004, with 200 runs in the Test series, including an entertaining 96 at Lord's. After that near-miss he finally brought up his maiden century in Bangladesh in October, with 143 at Dhaka. He added another hundred in the two-day victory over Zimbabwe in August 2005, and now needs to reproduce that form against the stronger teams. McCullum first made the New Zealand one-day side as a batsman, in the 2001-02 VB Series in Australia, where he made the acquaintance of Brett Lee, who has since let him have more than one beamer, to widespread outrage. Two years later McCullum, by now keeping wicket, forced his way past Robbie Hart into the Test side for the 2003-04 series against South Africa.

 

In February 2008, McCullum was bought for $700,000, the biggest winner from New Zealand, by the Indian Premier League's Kolkata franchise and launched the tournament with an unbeaten 158, the highest total in Twenty20 cricket. McCullum arrived in England after the IPL hype and scored two fifties in the three Tests before contributing handily in New Zealand's 3-1 ODI win afterwards. A maiden hundred came next, albeit against a threadbare Ireland outfit, but his stocks continue to rise.