Cricket: Arguing the toss

Brendon McCullum has only won 40.9 per cent of coin tosses as New Zealand's test captain. Photo / Getty Images

Brendon McCullum bemoaned his ordinary record of winning test tosses before the second Sri Lanka test.

He duly proved his point by losing the call to Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews at the start of play at the Basin Reserve - or more accurately Mathews called correctly for the second time in the series.

There's no particular science to winning tosses. You, or your rival skipper, depending on where the test is being played, either calls correctly or not. A 50-50 chance every time.

McCullum's record is well below 50 percent, but then he's far from the Lone Ranger among New Zealand captains when it comes to winning a trick before the first ball is bowled.

McCullum quipped the day before the test that although he fancied bowling first ''with my success rate there's every chance our openers will be going in first".

So it proved. He then made the point that Stephen Fleming, New Zealand's longest serving and most successful captain ''was a shocking tosser as well".

Fleming went at a 46.25 percent success rate over his 80 tests in charge.

Of New Zealand skippers who did the job for a reasonable length of time going back to the late 1960s, four men, Graham Dowling, Geoff Howarth, John Wright and Ken Rutherford won more than half their tosses.

Some had dreadful records, such as Bevan Congdon and Glenn Turner.

Internationally speaking?

Mathews is developing a cracking record, having won 11 of 15 tosses. Others are adjacent to the 50 percent mark.

What about the mighty Don Bradman? A test batting average of 99.94 didn't equate to a fabulous coin-toss record. He won just 10 of his 24 tests as Australian skipper.

McCullum's ODI record by the way? Sixteen wins from 34 tosses.

New Zealand captains:
Ken Rutherford (18 tests, 12 tosses won, winning percentage 66.6); John Wright (14, 8, 57.14); Geoff Howarth (30, 17, 56.6); Graham Dowling (19, 10, 52.6); Martin Crowe (16, 8, 50) Jeff Crowe (6, 3, 50); Stephen Fleming (80, 37, 46.25); Brendon McCullum (22, 9, 40.9); Mark Burgess (10, 4, 40); Bevan Congdon (17, 4, 23.5); Glenn Turner (10, 2, 20)

International captains:
Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka) (15, 11, 73.3); Michael Clarke (Australia) (40, 22, 55); Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan) (34, 16, 47.0); Alastair Cook (England) (28, 12, 42.8); MS Dhoni (India) (60, 26, 43.3)