Ross Taylor made himself unavailable for New Zealand's cricket tour to South Africa this month after being fired as national captain and replaced by Brendon McCullum.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum who had been tapped to lead the One-day and Twenty20 sides, will take on all three roles and faces a baptism of fire with upcoming series against top-ranked South Africa and England.
McCullum's appointment as New Zealand's 28th test captain comes after Taylor scored a century and half century to lead New Zealand to a drought-breaking test victory over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. New Zealand had previously lost six-straight tests under Taylor.
"Taylor thought about it long and hard and he said that he would like a break to spend time with his family and we've agreed to that and we respect it" New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive David White said.
Taylor's batting average, however, had actually improved since he took over the captaincy. In his 13 Test matches as skipper he scored 1,047 runs at 49.85 with three centuries, while he had a career average of 43.57 in 43 Tests overall.
In One-Day Internationals, Taylor had scored 795 runs in 20 matches as skipper at an average of 46.76, while he scored 3,408 runs in 116 ODIs at an average of 37.86 overall.
The 31-year-old McCullum, who had been considered a strong candidate to take over from Vettori last year, has played 70 Test matches at an average of 35.63 and 206 One-Day Internationals.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum who had been tapped to lead the One-day and Twenty20 sides, will take on all three roles and faces a baptism of fire with upcoming series against top-ranked South Africa and England.
McCullum's appointment as New Zealand's 28th test captain comes after Taylor scored a century and half century to lead New Zealand to a drought-breaking test victory over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. New Zealand had previously lost six-straight tests under Taylor.
"Taylor thought about it long and hard and he said that he would like a break to spend time with his family and we've agreed to that and we respect it" New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive David White said.
Taylor's batting average, however, had actually improved since he took over the captaincy. In his 13 Test matches as skipper he scored 1,047 runs at 49.85 with three centuries, while he had a career average of 43.57 in 43 Tests overall.
In One-Day Internationals, Taylor had scored 795 runs in 20 matches as skipper at an average of 46.76, while he scored 3,408 runs in 116 ODIs at an average of 37.86 overall.
The 31-year-old McCullum, who had been considered a strong candidate to take over from Vettori last year, has played 70 Test matches at an average of 35.63 and 206 One-Day Internationals.
