McCullum is tired of the media saying that he influenced Hesson and New Zealand Cricket into introducing the split captaincy

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has insisted that he had no involvement whatsoever in head coach Mike Hesson and New Zealand Cricket’s decision to split the captaincy at the end of the Sri Lanka series.

McCullum’s predecessor Ross Taylor was supposed to maintain control of the Test side, while he took charge of the limited overs squads, but Taylor refused to compromise and left his team-mate accountable for all three teams.

After Taylor decided to give up the captaincy, he also announced that he would be taking a break to spend more time with his family and has still not revealed when he will be returning to the national team.

“I’m more concerned now with how the team is handling the situation and where we go from here – how we try and galvanise the unit, rather than my own individual accolade of picking up the captaincy,” McCullum said. “I’m obviously worried for Ross and how he is dealing with things at the moment, and obviously how we try and ensure that we pull together this team inside a very short space of time for what is going to be an incredibly tough tour.”

McCullum also revealed that he had kept in contact with Taylor, who stated that Hesson had never supported him ever since he took over as head coach from John Wright in July.

“I’ve spoken to him a couple of times – two days ago and then left a message with him again this morning – but he obviously needs a little bit of space at the moment as well, and I thought he did a really good job yesterday with the media of being able to deal with some tough circumstances,” McCullum said. “Ross is an integral member of this team and he’s vitally important to us in terms of how we’re going to try and increase our performances. He’s also a very popular member of the team as well and there’s a lot of guys that will be feeling for him at the moment – we will welcome him back when he’s good and ready.

“I know it hasn’t been a great process with the way it’s unfolded and I know there is a lot of anger towards it.

“I guess from our point of view, we now need to try and move forward and get some faith back into this team and build some rapport with the public because that’s obviously taken a hit over the last seven days.”

The new captain was extremely frustrated by the media constantly stating that he had played a part in convincing Hesson and New Zealand Cricket that a split captaincy would be beneficial for the national team.

“That’s probably the thing that has come out through this week that’s annoyed me the most,” McCullum said. “I guess that cuts right to the bone that someone would question your integrity and your character like that.

“I guess it’s been mentioned on a number of occasions and to be totally honest, it is highly insulting, for people to cast aspersions when they certainly don’t know the full circumstances.

“From my point of view, I had absolutely no involvement in that recommendation whatsoever. I was asked if I would lead the one-day and Twenty20 teams two days ago, and then yesterday I was asked if I would lead the Test team, after Ross turned it down so about as much involvement I’ve had in this situation.”

However, despite everything that has happened, McCullum admitted that relations between him and Taylor remain healthy.

“It’s only really been media hype and fiction over the last 16 months, since the captaincy selection of Ross, which tried to drive a wedge between Ross and I,” McCullum added. “In terms of the public profile, we’ve got a very good and respectful relationship. We know each other, we’ve played with each other for a very long time and we know each others families.”

McCullum noted that he sympathised with Taylor and hopes that he will return before their upcoming Test series against England.

“I don’t want to sit here and talk about how hard it’s been on me, because it’s certainly been a lot harder on other people, but you know that as long as, through your dealings, that you are honest and you maintain your integrity throughout, then you can look yourself in the eye and know that you’re doing the right thing,” McCullum said. “Now Ross is going through some tough times and my thoughts are with him.”

“When he is good and ready to come back, then we’ll certainly welcome him back, and I’ll be looking to help him as much as I possibly can to reach the standards he wants to reach in this game, to be an integral member of this team and play a vital part in that.”