'Spat with Ross Taylor a stain on NZ cricket,' Brendon McCullum speaks on 2012 captaincy row, 2015 WC run and more

One of New Zealand cricket's most coveted figures, Brendon McCullum has revealed that his full-blown spat over captaincy with Ross Taylor back in 2012 massively damaged their relationship. Speaking on a Sky Sports podcast, McCullum said that the whole saga was a really bad stain on New Zealand cricket.

"It was hard to go through a period like that and ensure that the friendship really stays in place."

After a 1-1 draw in the Kiwi's tour to Sri Lanka, which many might say was an acceptable result at that time, Ross Taylor stepped down as the captain of the Test side.

McCullum revealed that both of them tried to be as professional as they could during the whole process, while a chunk of the media theorised how McCullum and then-coach Mike Hesson tried to oust Ross Taylor as the captain.

Stating that the matter was not handled well at all, the legendary New Zealander said that Taylor denied a split captaincy role where he could keep leading the Test team, after which he (McCullum) took over all three formats.

"I was offered all three formats by New Zealand and I took the role after I spoke to my wife about it."

Speaking about his cricketing journey on the podcast, McCullum covered a myriad of topics including his first Test as captain, his incredible run in 2014 and the World Cup 2015 campaign.

Talking about the astonishing run in the World Cup, McCullum said that it would be fair to say that it was the peak of his career.

"I felt that we had a team that could win the World Cup and I believed that we had a team that could handle the pressure of playing in the World Cup," he revealed.

The full interview can be found on Sky Sports, here.