McCullum's legacy isn't reliant on a Kiwi World Cup victory

Whatever happens in the Cricket World Cup, Brendon McCullum has already left a significant legacy on New Zealand cricket that he can be extremely proud of when he finally hangs up his Black Cap.

In the selfish world of professional sport many sportspeople leave the game that has dominated their lives since they were a kid with some great mates, a few memorable achievements to remember and often a large amount of cash in the bank.

A very small percentage of them are able to leave a prominent legacy on their sport like the one McCullum is already certain to leave.

McCullum is a positive, charismatic role model for young cricketers throughout New Zealand while also inspiring many non-cricketers to take up the sport for the first time. His appeal reaches much wider than that though, with his appearance and approach to the game endearing him to men and women who may have had little or no interest in cricket in the past.

Interestingly, he wasn’t always so universally liked by men and women of all ages. Prior to taking over the New Zealand captaincy, much of his career was plagued by unwarranted criticism from sections of society who didn’t seem to understand or accept him.

Not long after taking over the captaincy McCullum discussed the issue of the criticism he has received.

“I think the rocks or diamonds nature of my style of play probably opens the door more to that kind of criticism,” he said.

“I’ve learnt to deal with criticism over the last decade or so … sometimes it hurts my family more than it hurts me.”

Ironically, many of the character traits that prevented people from accepting him are the same ones that have seen him embraced as a really special New Zealander. They are also some of the traits that saw an article printed out of Australia this week with the headline: “Why we wish Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum was an Aussie”.

One strength of McCullum clearly on show in the weekend’s victory over Australia was his courage. Kiwis love their heroes to be battlers just as much as the Aussies do, and his brave performance after copping a vicious blow to the forearm from Mitchell Johnson elevated the man who’s already a national hero into almost superhero status.

The television coverage that showed McCullum’s forearm swell up within seconds of him getting hit was a very graphic reminder to viewers that what McCullum makes look easy is extremely dangerous too.

When you hail from Dunedin, where they pride themselves more than anywhere else on being ‘real men’ and you have an older brother (Nathan) almost as competitive and talented as yourself, you almost have no option but to ‘man up’.

Not that McCullum has ever been one to take a backward step since his emergence on the international scene against Australia in 2002. He might have been only 18 at the time but that didn’t stop him displaying the same sort of confident and combative demeanour back then as we saw from him at the weekend.

Like we’ve seen with Kane Williamson more recently, McCullum stood out through age-grade cricket so much from his peers that for those following him closely through his teens the debate often wasn’t so much about whether he’d play for New Zealand as it was about whether he could adjust his technique and keep enough of a level head to go down as one of the greats of his generation.

On pure playing ability it’s as a wicket-keeping batsman that most cricket purists will remember McCullum as one of New Zealand’s greatest players. Unfortunately many of the less fanatical followers of cricket will never value what he achieved through that period as much as they do his performance these days in the captaincy and specialist batsman role for New Zealand.

McCullum’s already made huge progress in his captaincy and batting since his role within the team changed. If he’s able to continue making progress in both areas his place as one of our greatest cricketers of all time will be hard for even his harshest critics to argue with.

Becoming the first cricketer to win New Zealand’s sportsman of the year award since Martin Crowe was further recognition last month that his efforts are more appreciated these days. The triple century that highlighted his landmark year also appeared to fully put to bed any doubt that McCullum might have had about his ability to become a world-class Test batsman.

Since getting those runs behind him, McCullum seems to have taken his role of captaincy and promotion of the game within the New Zealand media to an even greater level.

It’s an indication of McCullum and his Black Caps teams impact that they’ve got a nation that often prides itself on claiming the underdog status actually openly saying ‘I think we can win this’.

Regardless of the result, the fact that he’s already got the nation encapsulated by cricket means McCullum’s impact on the game in New Zealand is assured.