New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has stressed his team must look for a turnaround soon if they want to win a major tournament following their unceremonious exit from the World Twenty20.
The Black Caps were dealt a telling blow by Sri Lanka, who beat them by 59 runs in a low-scoring game in Chittagong.
With Sri Lanka dismissed for a paltry 119, the match was within New Zealand’s reach but left-arm spinner Rangana Herath demolished them with figures of five for three runs in 3.3 overs.
That bowled New Zealand out for their lowest Twenty20 total of 60 – overall third lowest in the shortest format.
New Zealand have only once reached the semi-final, way back in the inaugural edition – a trend McCullum wants to end.
“Something’s going to have to change at some stage,” said McCullum after the match.
“Otherwise we’ll keep turning up at tournaments, winning a couple, losing a couple and never claiming any silverware and that’s not what we play for and something’s going to have to change if New Zealand’s going to start winning major tournaments.
“We’ve got one at home in a year’s time which better be it.”
New Zealand and Australia co-host the 2015 World Cup (50 overs) in February-March.
Regarded as the perennial under-achievers in world cricket, New Zealand have only won the 2000 Champions Trophy in their history.
Chasing a modest target, New Zealand lost Martin Guptill to a silly run out and five balls later McCullum was stumped off Herath for nought.
“There was some soft dismissals, some poor options – myself included,” said McCullum, who hit a match-winning 65 against the Netherlands in their previous game.
He was lost for words on being all out for 60, with opener Kane Williamson contributing 42 of that low total.
“How do you get out for 60? I’m still trying to work that out as well – especially when one guy gets 40-odd,” said McCullum.
“They bowled really well, but we didn’t bat well. We played across the line to the ball which was skidding on and some of us tried to be too aggressive against the ball spinning away.
“T20 is a game in which you’ve got to be convinced in your method… and I don’t think we really committed to our method today.”
McCullum admitted New Zealand were not good enough.
“We’re not good enough to only play at 80 per cent and there’s some things that irked me through the tournament and I’ll be addressing those later,” he said.
“Our cricket smarts weren’t there. When you’re playing on these surfaces, which are very foreign to what we’re used to, plus with the nature of Twenty20, where you have to be very smart with your decision making as well, you can’t afford to be lacking with your cricketing intelligence and that’s what we lacked in this tournament.”
