17 interesting facts about Brendon McCullum

Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand skipper is regarded as one of the dangerous batsmen in world cricket due to his aggressive mindset on the field which he brings out with a bat.

Here are some interesting facts about Brendon McCullum:

1. Cricket Family:

Brendon McCullum born to Stuart McCullum who represented Otago in First Class Cricket & List A. Brendon’s elder brother Nathan has also represented New Zealand in a decent amount of games.

2. Debut in representative Cricket:

Brendon McCullum made his representative Cricket debut in 1996 for Otago U-17s. However, he bagged a pair in the debut game against Northern Districts.

3. Under 19 World Cup:

Brendon McCullum represented New Zealand side in the U19 World Cup in 2000 along with James Franklin, Nathan McCullum.

The tournament saw future top cricketing players namely, Graeme Smith, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Sami, Ian Bell, Michell Johnson, Marlon Samuels, Hamilton Masakadza, Jonathan Trott and many other players.

4. Records in Youth Test Cricket:

Brendon McCullum created some records during U19 Test series against South Africa in 2001. He made his Youth Test Cricket debut along with Ross Taylor and Hashim Amla of South Africa.

In his debut game, he was one of the 83 players to score a century in Youth Test debut as he scored 123 in the New Zealand first innings.

In the next innings, i.e. in the next match, he scored 186 in the first innings to record the highest individual score in Youth Tests for New Zealand. He became one of the 19 players who scored centuries in consecutive innings in Youth Test format. He scored an unbeaten 46 in 2nd innings of the game.

By scoring a 100 in the 3rd Test, he became one of the 3 players who scored centuries in 3 consecutive matches in this format.

His 455 runs in the series was the 4th most by a player in a Youth Test match series. His career average of 151.7 was the highest for any player with a minimum of 400 runs.

McCullum was among the 8 players to have scored at least 3 centuries in this Youth Test format, one of the 3 players to score 3 centuries in a calendar year and only the 2nd player to score 3 centuries in a series.

And all these records Brendon McCullum held in Youth Test Cricket were record for New Zealand by default.

5. Debut in professional Cricket:

Brendon McCullum made his professional Cricket debut in February 2000 for Otago against Central Districts in a First Class game part of Shell Trophy. Later in December of the same year, he made his List A debut against Canterbury in Shell Cup.

6. International Debut:

McCullum made his ODI debut against Australia on 17th February 2002 and 2 years later, he made his Test debut against South Africa on 10th March 2004.

7. ICC Super Series:

For the Super Series which was supposed to be played between World XI and Australia, ICC named 20-men probable for ICC World team. Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori were the only New Zealand players to have made into that 20 men squad.

8. Fastest fifty in World Cup Cricket:

Brendon McCullum recorded the fastest fifty in a World Cup game when he scored a 20 ball fifty against Canada in 2007. Later, he improvised it by scoring fifty in just 18 balls against England.

9. Swashbuckling start to IPL:

McCullum started off the richest Cricket league, IPL with a bang scoring an unbeaten 158 in 2008 which was a record for the highest individual total in twenty20 format at that time. It stood as the record for 5 years before Chris Gayle broke it by scoring 175* in 2013.

10. Fastest century in New Zealand domestic cricket:

With a 52 ball century for Otago Volts against Auckland Aces in 2008, McCullum set the fastest century in New Zealand one-day domestic circuit. He scored 170 in the innings, breaking the Shell Cup individual score record of 162.

11. Partnership records in ODI Cricket:

In 2008, Brendon McCullum shared a 274 run stand for the opening wicket with James Marshall against Ireland which is a record for New Zealand. His 166-run stand for the 6th wicket with Craig McMillan was also a record for New Zealand.

12. Records in Test Cricket:

Brendon McCullum had a great year in test Cricket 2014 as he started with a triple century against India at Wellington to become the first NZ player to score a triple ton in test cricket.

He hit 33 sixes in Test in 2014, the most sixes by a player in a calendar year.

With 2 double centuries and a triple century in 2014, McCullum became only the 3rd player to have scored 3 or more double tons in a calendar year.

Playing his last Test, McCullum recorded the fastest ever Test century in just 54 balls against Australia at Hagley Oval, Christchurch in 2016.

13. Top run scorer in T20Is:

In 2010, Brendon McCullum became the first player to complete 1000 runs in T20I format. Later in 2014, he became the first player to complete 2000 runs in the format, which is yet to be reached by any other player. With 2140 runs, he is the leading run-scorer in Twenty20 International format with the 2nd best Mahela Jayawardene standing with 1493 runs only.

In 2012, McCullum became the first player to have scored 2 centuries in T20Is, who is still the only player.

14. House:

In 2014, Brendon McCullum sold his house for over 3 million USD. As per TV NZ, the house contains 6 bedrooms, 4 living rooms and a “heated pool”.

15. Captaincy:

In 2008, McCullum took over as New Zealand’s T20I captain and a year later he became the ODI captain of his country. In 2013, he was assigned captaincy duties of Test format and hence he turned out as captain of all 3 formats for his side.

In 2015, he became the first New Zealand captain to lead his side to finals of ODI World Cup.

16. Honour:

Recognizing services of Brendon McCullum, in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was appointed an “Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit”.

17. Records in Twenty20 format:

Brendon McCullum became only the 2nd player to score 2 150+ scores in twenty20 format when he smashed unbeaten 158 yet again, this time for Birmingham against Derbyshire in Natwest T20 Blast in 2015. He has 2 highest individual totals in twenty20 format among the top 3.