Waking up Saturday morning to the news that Brendon McCullum had smashed a century off just 54 balls on the opening day of the Test against Australia, my first reaction was of disbelief.
Not only because he had broken among the most coveted records in the sport (Viv Richards and Misbah-ul-Haq held it previously with a century each off 56 balls) but that this was going to be McCullum’s last match.
“Insane,” I said to myself as I checked the extraordinary scorecard of the New Zealand innings where the top order had collapsed to 32/3 before the captain’s sensational counterattack. “Somebody please stop him!”
Countless people — and not just New Zealand cricket fans — have tried to convince McCullum otherwise ever since he made his decision to retire known on the tour of Australia earlier this season. To no avail, alas.
When to quit, I maintain, is essentially and intensely a personal decision, and McCullum’s mind was made up. That must be respected. The regret was that he should be signing off when at the top of his game. But then again, what better than that his retirement coincides with achieving one of the most difficult and magnificent landmarks the sport has to offer? When, as the oft-repeated cliché goes, people ask why, rather than why not?
Mulling over this achievement, I can think of only three other players in the past three decades who looked likely to better Viv Richards record: Adam Gilchrist, Virender Sehwag and McCullum, all audacious, free-stroking batsmen.
There have been several extraordinary strokeplayers as will be argued with justification. However the crux of the matter is not talent, rather the temerity to bat in a certain way in most situations. That only becomes possible with utter disdain for personal statistics, which Gilchrist, Sehwag and McCullum shared with Richards.
If this looks like it panders to self-indulgence, there are several examples of how they’ve also adapted to circumstances. McCullum, for instance, made a triple century to save a Test against India in 2013-14 with deep resolve.
It is the attitude towards the game (and batsmanship by extension) that marks them out as different. Look at their match-winning efforts. In percentage terms, they would exceed that of a great number of greats in the history of Test cricket.
Interestingly, the hugely gifted and relatively unsung Misbah surprised everybody in racing past everybody when equaling the West Indies Master Blaster last season, but couldn’t make the record all his own.
Meanwhile Gilchrist and Sehwag had retired. Of other intrinsically aggressive modern batsmen with the power and range of strokes to score at breakneck speed, Kevin Pietersen is lost to international cricket, Chris Gayle has never been the same force in the five-day format. AB de Villiers? David Warner? Both have the talent, chutzpah, and a seeming disregard for personal records that is crucial in the making of such record, but clearly not just yet.
Destiny it would appear had marked out McCullum for this honour. However, it is not just the fastest century in Test cricket which is McCullum’s abiding legacy: the record could be bettered some day, and the way batsmanship is evolving, may not even take three decades! It is in how he has redefined the fortunes and image of New Zealand cricket that McCullum’s real worth emerges. He took on the captaincy in troubled times, with the sport in decline in his country and the dressing room in turmoil. Very quickly, he won the allegiance of every player.
He also showed enormous courage in taking a stand against his one-time idol Chris Cairns in a corruption scam where most players (the world over) have looked to bury their heads in the sand. Finally, of course, McCullum introduced a brand of play that shook the game at its foundations, as it were. With his intrepid methods of ‘total attack’ he made cricket sexy in New Zealand, and New Zealand cricket sexy.
In doing this, he has also recast substantially the ethos of the sport for the 21st century. In four days, McCullum will retire but he leaves behind a body of work that marks him out not just a great player, but also among the most influential figures ever in the game.
