New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum is touched by his two gongs at the nation’s premier sports awards but their significance is eclipsed by the silverware on offer in six weeks’ time.

McCullum told journalists on Thursday he was humbled to be crowned Halberg Sportsman of the Year at the awards ceremony in Auckland.

His triple century against India early in 2014 was also voted by the public as “New Zealand’s favourite sporting moment”.

The Black Caps veteran says individual awards aren’t a motivation but he is pleased to see cricket acknowledged by the Halberg judges, something that hadn’t happened since Martin Crowe won the men’s honour in 1991.

“It’s symbolic of the year we’ve just had,” he said.

“For cricket to be in that sort of spotlight is a good thing and right on the eve of the World Cup it can only help the momentum the team has built up till now.”

McCullum, who couldn’t attend the ceremony, missed out on the supreme award won by rowing pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray.

The 33-year-old became the first Kiwi to pass 1000 Test runs in a calendar year and led the Black Caps to arguably their best ever year in terms of results.

He attributed his form at Test and one-day international level to the presence of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in the batting line-up.

They had developed into two of the better contemporary international players and allowed him to bat in a more relaxed state.

McCullum is in Christchurch preparing to lead the Black Caps in the World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

He says the Halberg award had only added to a positive feeling within the camp following a series of strong results in the lead-up.

It’s a sensation he hopes can be maintained through until late March.

“We’re going to have some tough days at some point.

“We’ve got to remain pretty level headed about our performance at the moment and make sure we’re pretty down to earth about that.”