Kiwis look to send McCullum off in style

Brendon McCullum won’t end his international cricket player later this month as New Zealand’s most-capped Test player.

He also recognises that when he walks from the field in his sweat-soaked, beer-infused Black Cap for the final time in his adopted home town of Christchurch in a couple of weeks that he won’t be eulogised as his nation’s greatest-ever player.

But it’s difficult to imagine a more emblematic, entertaining figure in international cricket over the past few years than the 34-year-old who begins his 100^th (and penultimate) Test match when NZ tackle Australia at Wellington’s Basin Reserve tomorrow.

McCullum has already enjoyed one soaring send-off, his final ODI that ended with a whiff of controversy and a blaze of pyrotechnics at Hamilton on Monday night as New Zealanders celebrated the end of their Waitangi Day long-weekend with a cherished series win over Australia.

Watch: McCullum finishes ODI career on a high

And while they will begin the two-Test series against their nearest neighbour and bitterest sporting rival in their traditional guise as underdog, if ever a team was going to rouse themselves out of respect for their leader it will be the Black Caps over the coming fortnight.

Such is the selfless spirit that McCullum has instilled in not only this team, but in countless national sides that will follow in a country where the summer sport is viewed as a pleasantly parochial pastime until the global source of national pride – the rugby - kicks off again.

It’s a spirit that’s as front bar and endearingly knockabout as the diminutive Dunedin ‘keeper turned skipper himself, and one that he was able to distil down to its bare essence on the eve of his milestone match in the nation’s capital.

Quick Single: Australia see through Basin Reserve's green monster

“For me, the game has always been about being in the change room afterwards,” McCullum said as he prepared to join his former teammates Daniel Vettori (112) and Stephen (111) as the only New Zealanders to represent their country 100 times in Tests.

“After you’ve been able to earn a Test win in tough circumstances and you’ve overcome a very good opposition and you sit round and see a group of guys who’ve achieved something over five days.

“When you sit round with a smile on your faces and a bit of music going, and you’ve got dirty whites and sweaty Black Caps and a beer in hand, and to be able to look back on the hard work that you’ve achieved.

“That’s what I got into the game for, and that’s going to be the last memory as well.”

If McCullum needs a fragrant reminder of his playing days as he heads off into post-international cricket life as a thoroughbred breeder and roving T20 showman, he need only reach for the tattered Test cap that began its journey charcoal but has now faded closer to that historic NZ cricket hue, beige.

He admitted to copping such a whiff when he unpacked his kit bag at Basin Reserve, the scene of his defining Test innings when he single-handedly altered the outcome of a Test against India two years ago with NZ’s first Test triple-century, and retrieved the mangy cap in readiness for tomorrow’s coin toss.

“It stinks,” McCullum said when asked about the only dressing room presence, save for current batting coach and former Test batsman Craig McMillan, that remains from his maiden Test appearance against South Africa at Hamilton in March, 2004.

“I got it out of the bag before – it’s rancid.

“It’s a quirk of Test cricket that we use the same equipment… same thigh pad as well since playing for New Zealand.

“But it’s also a sign of character.

“It symbolises the hard work, places you’ve been and emotions you’ve dealt with.

“Hopefully it will hold (intact) for two games.

Asked if he had considered getting it to a local milliner prior to this farewell series to ensure it held together for the final act, McCullum flashed the sort of satisfied smile one imagines would accompany the beer and tunes during a post-Test victory debrief.

“Absolutely not, I’ve worked too hard to get it like that,” he said.

Watch: McCullum sets new mark in final ODI

In the first of a round of reflective media conferences that are likely to accompany him into retirement, McCullum rated his team’s 2-1 series win in the Caribbean in 2014 - his first away series victory since taking over the leadership from Ross Taylor in messy circumstances - as the most memorable during his time.

And the outcome that helped instil a sense of belief and belonging in a team that – a year later – he led to the final of the ICC World Cup for the first time in the Black Caps’ cricket history.

As someone who fears little more than being viewed as egocentric or a limelight addict, which is in itself at odds with his head-turning, guns-blazing approach to batting, McCullum even cites his individual career highlight as being significant for the broader benefit it delivered.

His epic 302 that occupied almost 13 hours, and which effectively silenced those who doubted his suitability to lead and reignited optimism among NZ cricket fans, was important because “of what it meant to the people that follow this team and have represented this team in the past’, he observed.

McCullum also wryly noted the imbalance in Test match scheduling by pointing out ex-England captain Andrew Strauss played his first Test several months after the current NZ skipper debuted, retired from the game almost four years earlier yet still played as many Tests (100).

So determined is he to remain true to his values of humility and authenticity, the Australians might have inadvertently found a chink in McCullum’s armour in Hamilton last Monday when they formed a guard of honour to celebrate his final ODI innings as he approached the crease.

Quick Single: Bird in for first Test

A gesture that the rival skipper later acknowledged was a “really, really nice thing from Smithy and the Aussie boys” but that he privately wished had never happened, such is his dread of public displays that might be interpreted as hubris.

A humility that extends to his own assessment of where he might fit within New Zealand cricket history when his final Test at Hagley Oval is complete.

“I’m never going to go down as a great player but I think I’ve tried to play a role for the team which has made some contributions over the time," he said.

“I’ve been pretty strong with how I’ve gone about the style of cricket I’ve tried to play throughout my career and that can have its knockers as well,” McCullum said in a rare moment of self-evaluation.

“But at the same time it can change a game.

“That’s the one thing I can look back on fondly and say I’ve been able to maintain that, even at times that were slightly adverse.

“But it would be nice to tick off a series win against Australia.

“We weren’t able to do it away from home (earlier in the summer) but it would be pretty special to do it at home.”