Cricket: Taylor's vice-captain but don't tell a soul

Ross Taylor. Photo / Getty Images

Ross Taylor has been made vice-captain of the national cricket team ... but keep it to yourself, because New Zealand Cricket does not want anyone to know.

Key players were told of the 25-year-old's appointment when the Twenty20 and one-day squads for Bangladesh were announced this week.

But the public were going to be kept in the dark, perhaps out of fear of putting too much pressure on the classy Central Districts right-hand batsman.

More likely, however, is an ongoing sensitivity around the demotion of wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum.

McCullum, 28, was relieved of his deputy duties in October, shortly after Andy Moles resigned as national coach.

McCullum said at the time that he was disappointed but still had "some fairly big goals I want to achieve for New Zealand, including the captaincy".

Taylor's rapid ascendancy may have stymied those ambitions.

The appointment also flies in the face of the thinking at the start of the season. At the time of McCullum's demotion, NZ Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said his organisation had concluded there was no need for a vice-captain and would rather see several players step up and take leadership roles within the team.

"Brendon being Brendon, he will lead," he said. "That's his nature. At the moment he needs to be focusing on several areas but primarily that is around fulfilling his potential with the bat."

From that perspective, the move appeared to pay immediate dividends, with McCullum scoring heavily in the one-day series against Pakistan, notching his second ODI century, then following that up with 76 in the following match.

Curiously, he captained in the two-match Twenty20 series that followed, as Daniel Vettori was injured.

Despite Vettori essentially anointing McCullum as his successor when he took the job - saying he did not want to lead the team beyond the 2011 World Cup on the subcontinent - it now appears Taylor has jumped the queue.

NZ Cricket might even get around to telling us one day.