A couple of years ago, Brendon McCullum was one of the most disliked characters in kiwi sport. Oh how times change as now McCullum has completely flipped the script on the back of a resurgent BLACKCAPS team and a World Cup to the point where he is now New Zealand Crickets' strongest marketing weapon.

McCullum has obvious value as the skipper of the BLACKCAPS. In fact, most of McCullum's value is because he is the skipper. The BLACKCAPS have struck a nice balance in which they play aggressive cricket where the aim, especially in Test cricket is to win Tests and not just compete hard for five days and earn a draw, while also being known as 'good guys'. Australia haven't quite managed to find this balance but led by McCullum, this appears to come naturally for the BLACKCAPS.

There are a few factors however that could see McCullum's position within the BLACKCAPS become worthy of discussion. This isn't an urgent matter, but a kiwi cricket fan should consider that the prospect of McCullum either falling horribly out of form with the bat or retiring in the next few years are pretty high and that our 'saviour' might not be around for much longer.

McCullum has averaged 60.18 in Test cricket since the start of 2014, including numerous knocks which greatly influenced the public's perception of him. That's because McCullum has averaged a staggering 107.42 in Aotearoa during that period across four Tests which is great, but one could counter that by pointing to the fact that those runs came against India and Sri Lanka, two sub-continent teams who lack any strike bowlers who aren't spinners. 

McCullum did enjoy some success in the United Arab Emirates where he averaged 69.40, but his average for the tours to the West Indies and England was a combined 22.50.

ODI cricket should be McCullum's bread and butter, but he has clearly adopted a pinch-hitting role which doesn't lend itself well to consistency. Since the start of 2014, McCullum has averaged 29.96 in ODI cricket and while the World Cup was a cricketing party, McCullum averaged 36.44 during the World Cup. Our most recent opportunity to watch McCullum wield his willow was in England across five ODIs where McCullum's top score was 36 and he managed 101 runs in the series.

You could nit-pick these stats and come up with some sort of argument on either side - I'm not convinced that McCullum should or shouldn't demand selection based on his run-scoring ability. That's where his ability to lead this BLACKCAPS team and to be the face of New Zealand Cricket holds a great influence because as long as he's doing alright with the bat, his value to the BLACKCAPS and New Zealand Cricket will see him maintain his position in the team.

There will however come a time when the 33 year old McCullum falls out of form, or just simply doesn't score the big centuries that he has in Aotearoa. Things quickly went pear-shaped for Michael Clarke in England because the former Australian skipper wasn't scoring enough runs to hold a position down as a batsman ... and there was Steve Smith ready to take over.

In my eyes, there is a skipper in-waiting and a batsman who is ready to fill McCullum's boots in the batting line-up. Kane Williamson has shown kiwis that he is perfectly suited to taking over from McCullum and right now, I'm of the opinion that Williamson could be a better captain than McCullum. Williamson is the sharpest cricketing brain in the BLACKCAPS but I also think he shares McCullum's will to win and is a low key aggressive character - which is seen in the strokes he plays as he doesn't whack sixes like McCullum, he strokes lofted drives for the same amount of runs.

Tom Latham showed that he shouldn't be pigeon-holed as a Test batsman when he was given the opportunity to partner Martin Guptill at the top of the order in the African limited overs series'. I like the combination of Guptill and Latham more than Guptill and McCullum in ODI cricket because when Guptill's batting with McCullum, he's the anchor. Latham's technique is perfectly suited to playing an anchor role which would free up Guptill to play his strokes while Latham keeps things ticking along. 

This is where we start to see how a natural progression could take place or perhaps a plan from McCullum and Mike Hesson in action. Latham is currently our Test opener, allowing McCullum to bat down the order and I think anyone would struggle to pick a better middle-order Test batting option than McCullum - playing both Corey Anderson and Jimmy Neesham could change that, but that's a while off. This means that McCullum is far more valuable in the Test team than he is in the ODI team, which could see the BLACKCAPS follow the trend of having different captains in different formats.

If Williamson was to be the ODI skipper, it would probably mean that McCullum would retire from ODI cricket to make way for Williamson. This would be a win-win in my eyes as Williamson would gain experience as skipper while McCullum would be able to focus on Test cricket, safe in the knowledge that the ODI team is in good hands.

I am happy to give McCullum and Hesson the benefit of the doubt and say that they have that plan or something similar in mind. McCullum is 33 and his position as a batsman is and always has been teetering on the brink, but his ability as a wicket-keeper and skipper have ensured that he has been a key selection. It will be interesting to see whether it is a slump in form or if McCullum steps down before a slump in form can strike, either way it's hard to see him being the BLACKCAPS captain in three years time. 

I'll leave ya'll with this thought - McCullum started this purple patch for the BLACKCAPS. He helped change a lot of things about this team, but I'm sure that even he knows that this is thanks in large part to a group of young cricketers currently in the team and  making waves in domestic cricket who are possibly our best group of young cricketers that we've ever had. McCullum helped start this, he got the ball rolling, but I'd suggest that Kane Williamson will be of far greater value as he's going to lead this team in what could be our golden years.

And yeah, golden years could be coming.