CANBERRA: New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said on Thursday he expects good spirit to prevail over spiteful sledging in next month’s Test series against Australia.

The Kiwi skipper has been regarded as a poster boy for good sportsmanship in the game and last month collected a spirit of cricket award for his leadership on New Zealand’s tour to England.

His stance on on-field spite has not always been matched by an Australian team brought up on what former captain Steve Waugh called mental disintegration.

Things became heated the last time the two nations met in the World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March, with wicketkeeper Brad Haddin criticised for repeated sledging.

Haddin later said he did it because he felt “uncomfortable” with how nice the Black Caps had been for their earlier pool match in Auckland.

Asked whether he thought things might change now that Haddin and some other senior Australian players had moved on, McCullum said only time would tell.

“We’re certainly not spending any energy on it or worried about it,” he said.

“With Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann as coach, I think the two teams will get on well.

“It’ll be healthy competition on the field but I think it should be played in good spirits.

“Our focus will be very much on our skills rather than anything.”

“It’s better than not being the nice guys,” McCullum smiled.

“We just go play cricket and we have a good time while we’re at it.

“We’ve got a great bunch of guys that we’re playing with. We’re out there representing our country and that’s where our focus is rather than the other stuff.”

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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