Brendon McCullum innocent? Hah!

Brendon McCullum could not have played it any better.

From vehemently protesting his innocence in playing even a whiff of a part in Ross Taylor's downfall to expressing his supposed concern for the ex-captain's current welfare, McCullum has strived to be seen in the best possible light.

But has he succeeded in ensuring his halo is shining as brightly as he would hope?

Not entirely from my perspective.

In essence, if McCullum has played as blameless a role in this tragedy and as big a Taylor loyalist as he would have me believe, he should have shown more convincing proof.

From the moment it was rumoured that Ross Taylor was for the bullet as captain in whatever form of the game, I would have expected to hear or read McCullum publicly announce his unqualified support for Taylor.

I expected McCullum to deny any interest in the captaincy because he believed Taylor needed more time to master the role.

And I would have expected to hear McCullum stress the fact that Taylor was fulfilling the most critical aspect of leadership by leading by example.

A fact backed up by the glowing statistic that our best current batsman by far has posted an average of 50 plus since he took over.

But no, not a chance.

McCullum's silence was deafening.

From trusted reports, I've heard that McCullum was happy to let the rift that has been in place since Taylor first won the captaincy take its course.

There are often varying opinions within a team as to who is best to lead them especially when results are mediocre.

And invariably in this situation, the best way to not let rumour and disunity not take over is for each and every member of a team to swear allegiance to the incumbent captain.

But sadly, Ross Taylor has never enjoyed that unconditional support during any part of his time as captain and has had to ultimately wear all the blame for this current Black Caps pitiful tale of incompetency from the weak, self-serving administration to their constant coaching upheavals to their monotonous lack of consistency.

I don't blame McCullum for any fierce ambitions he may have including his desire to be captain but at the same time, he can't expect me to completely swallow the fallacy that he's kept these aspirations in check in the last few weeks.

Now he is in the grip of that proven conundrum..."be very careful of what you may wish for."

Because now, it's his turn to take over the reins of one of the most dysfunctional sporting outfits in our entire history.

And with only a nothing test average of less than thirty runs in the last year, McCullum has a heap of improvement to deliver to match Taylor's follow-me leadership style since he took over.

I wish him well. If his success rate as captain matches that of his fairly ruthless ambition to achieve that status, we can expect good times ahead.

Your thoughts please.