McCullum can still be NZ captain: Vettori

Abu Dhabi: New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has said that having the vice-captaincy tag removed from Brendon McCullum would not deter him from being a captain in future.

The decision to strip McCullum of his vice-captaincy post was taken by the selectors, who want to get him back into his best form, and develop more leaders within the squad.

“We had a long discussion, we talked about where we wanted to go from here and how to make this team better. He’s fully on board and still has an immense desire to captain the team. I don’t see why he can’t in the future,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Vettori, as saying.

He also lauded selectors’ efforts to develop more leaders in the squad by dividing the responsibility among senior players such as Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, McCullum and Ross Taylor.

“Sometimes when you get a vice-captain in place you don’t leave yourself many other options. I know my fellow selectors want to look at a number of people, Brendon included,” Vettori added.

Vettori further said that McCullum’s form with the bat has been below par in the recent times and emphasized that that he should be concentrating on his batting.

There is no formal vice captain for the trip to the United Arab Emirates, where New Zealand will play against Pakistan in three one-day internationals on November 3, 6 and 9 and two Twenty20 internationals on November 12 and 13.

ANI