Williamson wants to follow same ethos as McCullum

Black Caps stand-in captain Kane Williamson. Photo / AP

Interim New Zealand cricket captain Kane Williamson continues to preach the mantra about team first and selfless individuals as they prepare for their opening T20 international tomorrow with South Africa.

After a tough series in Zimbabwe where New Zealand improved, they have moved to Durban for the first of two T20 matches before they finish their tour with three one-day internationals.

Team performance was the overall aim and those would occur if a number of players chipped in. The change in team culture in the last few years had been driven by captain Brendon McCullum and Williamson was determined to maintain that progress.

"A lot of what we talk about is playing for the right reasons, playing to contribute to the team and moving the team forward," he said, "being able to remove too many selfish endeavours which can be a challenge in the game, with so many statistics around which can come into individuals mindsets.

"The biggest thing when you come into the team or the obligation to the team is to purely help the team win and move the team forward to a better place."

Numbers, figures and statistics could be a distraction in cricket and if players performed a role then those milestones would occur as a consequence of their work.

The team and the nation had learned a great deal from the successful World Cup in New Zealand and Williamson felt it had changed the way the country looked at cricket.

South Africa was a world-class side and this was a great opportunity for NZ to learn from playing them in their own backyard. It would also give him more chances to test his captaincy which was both a privilege and a challenge.

His opposing captain AB de Villiers was a multi-talented player who was going to keep wickets in the T20s which would create even more depth in a strong side.