Current Test Captains #5: New Zealand

What a difference winning a few games makes.  Six months ago Brendon McCullum was under fire from almost all sides:  questions about his dodgy back, an uneasy reconciliation of Ross Taylor to the team, and a closely-associated national coach on shaky ground. All of these factors are still somewhat in play, but beating the West Indies in tests and taking them and India on in the shorter form of the game has given NZ a little more pride and a little less grounds for navel-gazing.  McCullum seems secure so long as his back holds up and he scores enough runs to justify his place in the team.  Who comes next?

The unprecedented nature of Ross Taylor’s ousting removes one potential and logical candidate. "Never" under Hesson as coach, of course, as firing Taylor as captain in the first place will probably be Hesson's mark in cricket history... so much so that perhaps the next coach will feel obligated to fire McCullum in order to get distance from the Hesson era. Even if the next coach has more confidence in Taylor's leadership ability, the nature of Taylor’s relationship to the rest of the team has changed; especially as it was the “bowler’s group” that was primarily complaining about Taylor’s captaincy in the first place. 

Kane Williamson has finally been settled on as vice-captain; the undertstandable hesitation in promoting someone so young and still finding his game caused by memories of Stephen Fleming’s struggles in the early year's of his captaincy when he was similarly left as the only candidate standing.  If McCullum does have to leave the office suddenly, one hopes that Williamson’s performance as a player is not a victim of the weight of the captaincy mantle.  

Truly no one else is there.  Tim Southee has filled in a senior pro but its as hard to see him as captain as it once was hard to see, say, Chris Cairns – both being leading and influential players but also injury candidates due to their workload in their respective eras.  Hesson has previously used Kyle Mills and proposed Nathan McCullum as stand-ins in shorter formats of the game but neither are likely to again play in tests. Peter Fulton gets to captain Canterbury from time to time but as he is about to turn 35 his chances of outlasting even the current captain are pretty slim.  

There are other Kiwis whose path seemed to have turned away from ever being their nation's captain.  Jesse Ryder may soon return to the test team but will likely be managed by team-mates rather than ever be a manager of them for the foreseeable future.  It looks increasingly unlikely that Dan Vettori will ever return to the side.  Even if he did Vettori has expressed no interest being a captain again.  Among the current first-class captains, Andrew Ellis (Cant) and Trevor Franklin are seen as ODI specialists for the national team, and Jamie How's (CD) and Gareth Hopkins' (Auck) test days are over. Neither Derek de Boorder (Otago) or Kieran Noema-Barnett (CD) feature in discussions for the team but perhaps their day will come.   

All this leaves only Daniel Flynn (ND) as an alternative from outside the current squad; he has recognized his easiest path* back would probably be as an opener  but his performance in this role is not exactly impressive.  (*Anyone wanting a middle-order spot would have to wait for the absence of more than two out of Williamson, Taylor, McCullum, Anderson, and Ryder, and arguably any of these are more likely to be named as a captain-in-succession).  Similarly Kruger Van Wyk is now a discarded international, who would need both Watling and Luke Ronchi to be out in order to return.

So long as McCullum's bat and his team does enough, his captaincy will continue.