Instead of hitting balls in the backyard, they are bouncing on a trampoline, not a cricket bat in sight. There are two boys now living in the house on Waterloo Street around the same age as when Brendon and Nathan, his older sibling, lived there. ‘He is just an ordinary lad, from an ordinary street’ McCullum describes in his autobiography pulling back the curtains on Waterloo Street in his bedroom to find out whether the “Scottish mizzle” had lifted and if today would be one of those days when he could grab his kit bag and head down to Albion to either watch Stuart play or join in himself. So yeah the key thing is he didn’t listen to me. Imagine telling him that now! Don’t go for the runs Brendon, play for the draw. I was a senior master so he had to do as he was told so he went out and put a dirty block on it and we drew. You get out, and I will kick your arse all the way back to Dunedin’. “Brendon, just 13, says ‘I think I can get this sir’. We were nine down, we were playing down in Invercargill with two umpires who loved Southland, and needed 14 runs to win with about an over and a half to go. The first game we played was against Southland Boys, which is a hate match.
“I got him into the first XI at the end of the third form. “The key reason he has done so well and played cricket the way he has is because he didn’t listen to me,” says John Cushen, a former Otago bowler who coached him at school. Talking to his old coaches you learn about a young cricketer who loved to attack with the bat, was comfortable playing with and against much older players, always wanted to take the winning option and, as an older teenager, got into a few scrapes that make him seem a bit more normal than most hugely successful sportsmen.
You can see the McCullum philosophy in full swing at Albion: Playing the game to win, having fun with your mates and self reliance rather than leaning on an army of backroom staff. ‘The key reason he has done so well … is because he didn’t listen to me’
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