McCullum will miss IPL hype

Brendon McCullum knows New Zealand's Test tour of England is more important, but he admits it will be difficult to depart the Indian Premier League after his final game on Tuesday. McCullum was an early star of the experimental tournament, smashing 158 in the opening contest, and is aware the atmosphere of the warm-ups in England will be significantly less than at the throbbing stadiums in India.

"It's going to be hard to leave this," McCullum told the Dominion Post. "This is where it is all happening, but having said that I understand that there is a tour to England about to begin which is really important."

Five New Zealand players were given permission to arrive late and while the tourists start the opening game against MCC on Sunday, McCullum will be preparing for his final fixture for Kolkata on Tuesday. The first-class affairs with Essex and England Lions will be the only chances for the quintet to switch from Twenty20 to Test mode and adjust to the conditions.

"The couple of warm-up games before the Test are going to seem incredibly low key when compared to what is going on here," McCullum said. "The hype here is huge. The Kolkata fans are regarded as some of the more passionate and so we've not ventured outside the hotel very often."

McCullum said the opening week of the IPL had been "pretty special" and he compared it to a golfer making the cut at the US Masters. "The fanfare is quite amazing," he said. "As a young kid I always aspired to play in front of big crowds, it was always something I wanted to do, but you don't really imagine things like this."

After being bought for US$700,000 at the auction, McCullum felt the pressure before the opening game and classed his century as a career highlight. "At the World Cup you had to wait about two months until the semi-finals came around, but here it was only about two minutes," he said. "I think it was because of the occasion ... and probably most of all the expectation because of the value placed on me."