Brendon McCullum was set to turn his back on a national contract in a bid to play a full season of Indian Premier League, before a holiday in Fiji convinced him to change his mind.
McCullum details the dilemma he found himself in last year in Inside Twenty20, a book written with Herald sportswriter Dylan Cleaver.
"I felt I had unfinished business from IPL II. The fact that the tournament did not pan out the way I envisaged had not sat well with me. I desperately wanted to turn it around," McCullum writes.
"I must admit I came bloody close to not signing with New Zealand Cricket. I took a plane to Fiji with my wife, Elissa, for a holiday and to think about what cricket meant to me.
"I had started to question how important cricket was to me ... This issue of signing, or not signing, my NZC contract brought it to a head. I needed to give something up to understand it and in the end what I did not want to give up was my full and utter commitment to New Zealand."
McCullum has not missed any of New Zealand's past 208 internationals, a record surpassed only by Sachin Tendulkar, who played a string of 239 internationals, and Andy Flower (224), yet the wicketkeeper-batsman has had his commitment to his country questioned.
"I get a bit disappointed when I read that I don't give a rat's a*** about playing for my country. The only reason the inference disappoints me is that I know the sacrifice I made to play for New Zealand.
"In what other industry would you be expected to take options that cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars?"
In his book he details the stinging criticism he and four other IPL players received for missing the first 10 days of the 2008 tour of England, criticism that came from two legends of the game.
"Doing something new is not always popular, is it?" he muses.
