Brendon McCullum

Brendon Barrie McCullum (born 27 September 1981) is a former New Zealand cricketer and the current head coach of the England Cricket Test team.

Representing New Zealand, he played all formats, including as captain.

McCullum was renowned for his quick scoring, notably recording the fastest test century of all time.

He is considered one of the most successful batsmen and captains of New Zealand cricket.

McCullum is the former leading run scorer in Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket and is the first and so far only one of the two Kiwi players to have scored two T20I centuries and 2000 runs in T20I (apart from Martin Guptill).

McCullum played for Glamorgan in 2006 and he scored 160 opening the batting against Leicestershire in the County Championship.

He played for the Kolkata Knight Riders from 2008 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2013, while in between he played for the Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

On 3 March 2008, before facing England for the test series, McCullum was involved in the State Shield Final versus the Auckland Aces, scoring 170 runs for the Otago Volts to help beat the Aces at Eden Park's outer oval, and helped to chase down a daunting total of 7 for 310, he broke multiple State Shield batting records.

He scored the fastest LA hundred off 52 balls, including 14 fours and 5 sixes.

With 170 runs in the match, McCullum scored the highest score by any player in a domestic one-day match (Shell or State competitions) overtaking Blair Hartland's previous record.

In the inaugural Indian Premier League tournament in 2008 he played for Kolkata Knight Riders.

On 18 April 2008 in the first-ever IPL match, he achieved the highest Twenty20 individual score in an innings, 158* against RCB.

This eclipsed the previous record mark of 141, held by Australian Cameron White.

Coincidentally, McCullum faced an over from White during the match and scored 24 from it; it was White's only over in that match.

On 24 January 2009, he lined up for New South Wales in the final of Australia's KFC Twenty20 Big Bash.

This was an exercise to allow him to be eligible to play for them in the Twenty20 Champions League.

This sparked criticism however despite opinion States are permitted to have one overseas player in their squad.

McCullum also donated his match fee from the game to Otago Junior Cricket.

On 16 January 2010 during the 2009-10 HRV Cup, vs Auckland Aces at University Oval, McCullum hit 108 not out off 67 deliveries, which included 10 fours and four sixes to lead Otago Volts to victory with three balls to spare.

McCullum reached his 50 off 32 deliveries and his century off 65 deliveries.

His innings of 123 against Bangladesh in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 is currently the highest score made by a New Zealand cricketer in the T20I format, and the highest score by a batsman in the history of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

He was the previous record holder for the highest individual score in a Twenty20 International (123 against Bangladesh in 2012) and third highest individual score in all Twenty20 cricket (158 not out for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008) which was later surpassed by Aaron Finch (172 against Zimbabwe for Australia) and Chris Gayle (175 against the Pune Warriors India) for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2013 edition of IPL.

McCullum was a wicket-keeper until 2013.

This record was eventually broken by Chris Gayle when he piled on 175 runs in IPL 2013.

In the same match he also claimed the record for most sixes (13) in a Twenty20 innings, which was later surpassed by Englishman Graham Napier (16).

He became the first New Zealander to score a triple hundred in a Test, 302 runs against India on 18 February 2014.

In 2014, he also became the first New Zealander to score 1000 test runs in a calendar year (1164).

The record was bettered by Kane Williamson with 1172 runs in 2015.

He played the 2014 and 2015 seasons for the Chennai Super Kings.

As captain, he led New Zealand to the final of the 2015 Cricket World Cup and the final of the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

On 22 December 2015, McCullum announced he would retire from international cricket at the end of the southern summer, joining his brother who had earlier that year announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

He is also the highest (170) runs scorer by a captain in his farewell test and first captain to score a century in his farewell test.

While playing for Warwickshire in the 2015 T20 Blast McCullum hit what was at the time the highest score in England's domestic T20 cup, 158* from just 64 balls.

The innings remains the highest T20 score by a batsman at Edgbaston.

Following his announcement to retire from international cricket in 2015, he signed with Middlesex for the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast, a blow for Warwickshire who had hoped he would return to them

In his last Test outing on 20 February 2016, McCullum posted the fastest ever Test century, in 54 balls, beating the 56-ball record held by his hero, Vivian Richards, scoring a total of 145 off 79 balls.

He also holds the record for the fastest 150 in Test cricket.

McCullum was the first batsman to score 2 tons in T20I.

He retired from international duty on 24 February 2016 and from all forms of cricket in August 2019.

In September 2016 he signed with the Lahore Qalandars for the 2017 season of the Pakistan Super League and will be the team's captain.