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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPFebruary 6, 2015Brendon McCullumCHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND Q. I guess it must feel pretty real right now. The day is not that far away? BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, a huge build-up heading into this event for us. It's been going pretty well for us until this point in time. But we know once the World Cup starts every team is on a clean slate. Our boys are certainly enthusiastic about what the next month and a bit will bring. I'm sure everyone that is a part of the World Cup is going to enjoy it, and those that follow the sport as well will certainly get swept up and the whole competition and how it unfolds. Q. You guys usually revel in sort of the underdog state as the dark horse. You're not this time. Does that change things for you? BRENDON McCULLUM: Not really, because I think underdog or favorites is kind of irrelevant once you get out on the ground. You see both start on an even keel. We've got a good on-paper team, but games aren't won on paper and we know that. So we have to make sure that we transfer the promise that our team looks on paper to performance on the field, and we've got to do it time and time and time again throughout the tournament. So it's some huge challenges for all teams in this tournament. We're no different, but someone's got to win it. Q. I guess you've played so many games in recent times too, so a lot of the other teams have a lot of homework on you too, a lot of scouting if you like. BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, I think that's a big part of the game these days are opposition teams. Ourselves, we do a lot of homework, preparation, and a lot of planning on different teams. I think it best prepares you. There are still obviously the nuances of the game to unfold and the game tactics and things. As far as our preparation is concerned, we're ready and all the other teams around the world will certainly be well prepared and well planned as well. That is the beauty of having a tournament -- a World Cup which is every four years is the build up to it. You do a lot of homework in the years leading into it as well, and strategies get crunched down closer to the time. And I'm sure all the other teams will be no different to that respect. Q. Do you think the team is responding well, walking through airports and people having an expectation of you now, the pressure of playing at home and all the rest of it, are you up for that? BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, it's great. We've had some superb crowds throughout the last year as well. It's created some really good turnouts and tremendous support for the team that followed this team, and that is something that sits comfortable with us. We've had to work pretty hard to win back the public's confidence and support as well, and I think not just the manner which we play on the field, but I think as well the way we try to carry ourselves off the field has probably been a big part in endearing ourselves to the public as well. But we're excited about being able to try to go out there and test our skills and try to perform on the world stage in what will be a magnificent event to be held in Australia and New Zealand, and to be able to do it in front of our home fans is something that we're all looking forward to. So hopefully we can deliver. Q. The downside of that is the nerves and jitters. Have you spoken about that as a team how you don't fall over when it really matters? BRENDON McCULLUM: Oh, it's a long way away. I'm confident that we've got the group of players that we have in this team at the moment and management as well, we've worked pretty hard on maintaining a pretty emotionally level group of guys as well. We know the game can have some pretty rapid swings with that getting caught up yourselves as well. So we know that there are times where we're going to be playing really good cricket and there are times where we're going to be behind the eight ball, but being too emotive about it can often distract you from being able to remain on task. That's what we've discussed as a group. It's one of the changes I feel we've made over the period of time as well, and it allows us to make good, clear decisions in the heat of the battle. There is still lots of cricket to be played, and we certainly can't sit up here and say we'll deal with every pressure situation on the way, but I believe we've given ourselves the best chance for preparation and the development of this team. Q. How do you rate this squad amongst all the ones you've been involved in? BRENDON McCULLUM: I've been fortunate enough to be involved in at least three World Cups and a number of different squads. But with this group of guys is a group which is desperate to represent New Zealand and perform on the international stage and start challenging the better teams around the world. We've still got a long way to go as a team, but we've made some significant strides in the last few months especially, and we're starting to achieve some special things. It would be great if we could swallow a World Cup along the way. The good thing is the style of play now is becoming so engrained with the group as well, that the personnel may change at times, but the style of play is pretty consistent. So that's, for me, I look at the squad and say we can execute the game plan. We know what is going to give us our greatest chance toward success and we go about doing that, and I believe the squad we have. And the personnel within that group is as good as what I've been involved in and is certainly committed to the cause of representing this team and executing the game plan which is encouraging from a captain and coach's point of view as well. Q. Does South Africa seem a long time ago, the series in the summer? BRENDON McCULLUM: It seems a long time ago. There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. It's been a good series for us. It kicked off our campaign. At least we got convincingly beaten in both of those games, but there is a bit of perspective there as well. We're coming straight out of our winter I guess, and we're playing on ground that we don't have a great deal of information about. So I wouldn't say there is a home team advantage there as such. I mean, when you're playing a team like South Africa and if you're a little bit off task or not quite fully prepared, they're going to expose you, and that's what we found in that series. We've learned good lessons from it as well. We saw Luke Ronchi and his confidence that's grown since those two knocks he had against him. And we've sent some other guys into the fray as well, and the success we've had over the last sort of while would probably be attributed to having those first couple of games against South Africa way back at the start of the season. Q. Is there a time or a point where you sort of looked at the build up and where you're at where the switch was flicked and that sort of self-belief really kicked in as a group? BRENDON McCULLUM: I think it's a one-day unit we've probably felt reasonably confident for a little while. We know we can't win every game. But I think we've been able to tick off some pretty important series wins over the last couple of years and some of them away from home as well against very good teams. England against South Africa to name a couple. But that self belief I guess has been there, but it's a matter of trying to crunch down our game plan to get to a point where we know how to operate. Sometimes if we're behind the game, we still know we've got the players and we've got the personnel within the group, and we know the game plan we need to play to get ourselves back to parity. Once we can do that, we try to push home an advantage as well. So I guess the emergence of that over a period of time has built and confidence is a funny word because it shows momentum, I guess, and we sort of go in with momentum. But if you lose 3 for 20 in the first sort of few overs, you can swing that momentum around, but the confidence we've been able to build over a period of time in the situations we've found ourselves in and still being able to succeed is something which I think the team is now priding itself on as well. At least that gives us a reason for hope that we've got a chance in this World Cup. Q. Away from game situations, what would have been the major differences in this build up as opposed to the previous campaigns you've been involved in? BRENDON McCULLUM: I think a lot of credit has to go to our management team and New Zealand credit too for having the right scheduling to come into this World Cup as best prepared as we possibly can be. We've been able to get some game time into some guys we'd dearly love to have introduce to International Cricket a little while ago, but they just weren't quite ready at the time. I think the preparation and the thought process and the overall planning that our support staff under Mark Hesson and Mike Sandle as manager, and New Zealand cricket too, there is a lot of thought going into it, and leave nothing to chance. They've certainly let us play and let us go out there and try to sink our teeth into the competition sort of thing, and get ourselves best prepared. So I think that's one of the points difference from this campaign to previous ones first. Doesn't guarantee anything, but it gives you your best chance. Q. Dave sort of asked you about some of the challenges about playing at home. Have you gone back to the old squad of '92? Have any of those guys come in and talked to you about the pros and cons of being at home and the potential pitfalls? BRENDON McCULLUM: No, not really. We through sitting back and watching at night and most of the squad who were alive then and some weren't even conceived at that time, but we've sort of got fond memories of that campaign, and how it captivated New Zealand and the manner in which that '92 team played and the innovation and sheer passion that they played with, and we've been able to glean some of those examples and try to integrate them into our current make-up as well. We haven't exactly had people come in and sort of discuss it with us, but the lasting image of '92 certainly resonates throughout the squad as well. We've been able to get on a roll as well and try and captivate the nation to inspire another young group of cricketers to come through on the back of our success in this tournament. So it's all in front of us, I guess. Q. Just following on a little bit from that. Are there any thoughts of bringing particular people in during the campaign at particular stages, perhaps? Or has anybody been discussed about just tweaking things, motivation things. Just to give you maybe a little bit of a boost when you need it? BRENDON McCULLUM: The development of this team has taken a lot of work and there's been a lot of planning and a lot of commitment from a lot of people within the organization and within the playing group as well. We've got the situation now where we've given ourselves the best chance, and now it's about us how we're able to handle the pressure moments, as Davis was talking about, how we're able to handle, I guess, the following that we may build if we start to -- if we perform well in the early stages of World Cup and just being able to capture those key moments and sometimes keeping things simple is the best way there. We play the game for the right reasons as a group. We'll go out there and try to exhibit our skills and see where we get. But I wouldn't imagine we'd bring any outside influences, especially at this late stage of the campaign. Sometimes that could unsettle a team as opposed to help them. Q. What about the switching on and switching off thing? You don't want them over two months to be super hyped up every day. They've got to have downtime. How will that be effected? BRENDON McCULLUM: Again, we've got the schedule -- well we have the schedule in our hands so we know exactly what we're dealing with. Again, the support staff has been very thorough of the times throughout the tournament we may get a bit of a fresh staff. That's one of the luxuries of playing at home is guys can for probably one or two days throughout the campaign may be able to go and reconnect with their families and friends and just get some downtime, especially during those six, seven, eight-day breaks that we've got in the series as well. Outside of that, we're encouraging the group to enjoy the tournament. Enjoy the fact that it is going to captivate New Zealand and Australia over the next six weeks. Don't be afraid of that. Go get amongst the public and fans of this team and embrace the fact that we are the team that has the opportunity to play a World Cup at home during their careers, and that doesn't happen all that often. Very encouraging of the guys to be able to go out and embrace that. There is lots of downtime as well. Some guys will spend most of the time watching the other games and other guys won't watch any of the other games. It's very much individual. We've mitigated against any sort of staleness in the preparation we've done. Q. There's been talk about how you guys haven't faced expressed pace for quite a while. Is there a concern that you haven't had a Steyn or Johnson in few weeks? BRENDON McCULLUM: Well, we faced (Indiscernible) and he's pretty quick (laughing). I guess, yeah, maybe. We won't know until that moment comes. But we're very respectful of the two teams we've just had on our shores in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They're very, very good teams with exceptional match winners throughout and they've some world class ballers too. When we do come up against the royal pace of a Steyn or a Johnson we're just going to have to try and adapt. You can't cover off everything, but we'll just see once that time arises and see how we handle it. Q. Just checking what the game plan is for these warm-up games? Is it likely you'll give everybody a run over the two matches, and would you be looking to play your shadow, best deliver against South Africa? BRENDON McCULLUM: Well, there is a bit of mixing that's going to unfold, especially with them not being fully-fledged internationals. As much, with our team, if we had a World Cup game tomorrow, I'd be confident that we'd go in and be as best prepared as we possibly can. So the challenge for us in these two warm-up games is to still try to eek out the last bit of preparation if we can find it, probably more important is that we don't unsettle the boat too much, so we've got to make sure that we try to use these games as an opportunity to just smooth out maybe if there are any rough edges, but maintain, I guess, that feeling of intensity that we've been able to operate with. When we normally play World Cups, we cry out for these two warm-up games. In this instance it may not be quite like that, but we're respectful of that situation. Q. Looking at sort of other series around the world, build-ups of other sides, who has impressed you? BRENDON McCULLUM: Australia's been very good, obviously, in their own conditions. South Africa's always good. We know that. I think this World Cup to me is the most open World Cup we've seen in a long time. I think because of the nature of the Wickets we're going to come up against, and they are quite pure the Wickets both in Australia and New Zealand, it brings in match winners. I think if you look at the top eight nations, I've got every team possesses match winners, and within a 15 to 20-over period, one of those match winners can take a game away from you. So we're respectful of each team that we're going to come up against, and that wouldn't surprise me if I wouldn't know who is going to be there at the end. But I think all teams have a live chance, especially the top eight playing nations. Q. Just on that in terms of the format, do you have any concerns about that? In other tournaments it's been a top six or super six series and you sort of knock out a thing. Is it disappointing that you don't perhaps get to play several of the other sides from the other section necessarily? BRENDON McCULLUM: It is what it is, I guess. I guess that's one of the challenges of this World Cup as well. You could win all six of your -- all of your -- not your warm-up games, but round robin games, sorry. You lose your quarterfinal and you're sitting back watching other teams compete for the trophy. Or conversely, you could stumble through those and win quarter, semifinal and you've got the trophy in your hands. So I guess that is the nature of the World Cup, and the schedule is in front of us, we know what it is, and we know what we've got to do to be able to achieve success, and I guess it remains to be seen if we can achieve it. Q. Lastly, back to those warm-up games where you say they're not official ODIs, are they likely to be like 12 aside sort of things where a baller doesn't or something like that? Would Luke Ronchi does he have a wrist or would Tom likely take the gloves in one game? BRENDON McCULLUM: Certainly, we get back together tomorrow, and as a group make sure everyone is still traveling well fitness-wise, and we can make those sorts of calls. But I'll assume -- I think it's fair to assume at some point in the next two warm-up games Tom will get an opportunity with the gloves, yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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