Cricket World Cup final: The post-mortem

Captain Brendon McCullum says to expect the Black Caps' aggressive style to escalate. Photo / Brett Phibbs

First the loss, then the post-mortem.

Should New Zealand, given the gravity of the occasion, have buttoned down their game accordingly? Not likely. If anything, captain Brendon McCullum said to expect their aggressive style to escalate.

The ultra-attacking batsman believes it is New Zealand's one hope of competing and beating the big nations on a consistent basis. With a World Cup final and a campaign that captivated the nation behind him, he is on to something.

There will be changes to personnel - Daniel Vettori will retire, Kyle Mills possibly and McCullum himself will probably dial back his involvement across the short formats - but not to the template created by the captain and coach Mike Hesson.

"The team perhaps will change over the next little while but the style of cricket and things we've been able to implement with this team and brand we're trying to play will remain and develop over next little while," McCullum said. "Hopefully that will then filter down to our domestic cricket and we'll see youngsters try to play the game the way we've tried to operate throughout this World Cup."

McCullum, articulate and thoughtful during a time of desolation, was at pains to point out that the feel-good factor this team has created in a rugby-mad country did not mean they were the "finished product".

"But we're certainly heading in right direction. We have guys who are selfless about playing for New Zealand. They want to make an impact and are prepared to buy into team plans and play an aggressive style of cricket."

It has been a process of filtering personnel and distilling the game plan over the past 12-18 months, but this World Cup gave a hint as to just how good this team could become. Losing the likes of Vettori will be hard, but no longer catastrophic.

"It's hard when you've lost a final to think too holistically, but we're certainly richer for the experience in terms of our standing in world cricket," McCullum said. "We need to get better and we're not satisfied where we're sitting at the moment, but the way we're going is certainly way to go about it."

The opener was inevitably asked whether he should have toned down his own game for the occasion, particularly with the swing in Melbourne notoriously short-lived.

"You don't change your style of play," he said. "There's element of fearlessness about how we play which has an effect on other teams as well... It's what gives us our greatest pleasure and sometimes you come undone. But for us to compete against big teams on regular occasions and develop into team we want to be, we need to keep playing this brand of cricket and we'll get better at doing it the more we become accustomed to it."

McCullum has thrown out the challenge to the domestic sides: start playing the game the way they do. That's the only way New Zealand are going to develop the depth of aggressive talent to keep New Zealand, if not at the mountain top, then at least trying to push Australia off it.