On the living room table in a flat in South Dunedin, a phone rings and Brendon McCullum picks up.
"Hello. Oh, gidday Richard.'' A long pause. The young cricketer moves into the kitchen and his voice drops. A few moments later, he returns with a sheepish grin on his face.
Turns out that was Sir Richard Hadlee, the New Zealand chairman of selectors, calling from Christchurch. Apparently "Paddles'' heard McCullum had been seen at rugby training on Tuesday night and was not best pleased.
"Yeah, he was a bit grumpy. But I managed to calm him down a bit,'' McCullum says with a chuckle.
I'm here to speak to a 20-year-old Dunedin kid whose life in the last six months has been far from ordinary, and whose future looks like it could be extraordinary.
By now, you should all know the story.
A brash young batsman with just a handful of first-class appearances to his name is called into the Black Caps to play Australia and South Africa.
Reaction is mixed. Some who have seen McCullum blast a century against Auckland at Carisbrook feel he's good enough. Others are heavily critical of Hadlee for throwing a rookie into the international arena against such quality opposition.
McCullum gets a couple of starts in the tri-series but looks out of sorts in matches at home against England.
Across New Zealand, the feeling is that this has been a failed experiment, that McCullum would have been better served playing a summer of provincial cricket.
But sit down with this young talent. Look at his eyes light up when he talks about being a Black Cap. And take note of the determination in his voice when he outlines his plans to have a long and successful international career.
Regrets? McCullum has a few as he reflects on one crazy summer.
"I didn't play the way I know I can. That's probably my biggest regret when I look back on the season,'' he says of his brief taste of the big time.
"Maybe I didn't trust my own preparation enough and maybe I was a bit guilty of getting too intense about the situation.
"I guess I never really felt comfortable, and that was of my own doing. Perhaps I also rushed things a bit too.
"But I've learned a lot from it. I know I've got a lot to work on.''
McCullum made his debut against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground and was run out for five. He had promising innings of 37 and 29 against South Africa in the tri-series but managed just 21 runs in three innings against England.
Perhaps it is a mark of his youth and his self-confidence that McCullum never doubted he deserved to be in the New Zealand team.
"I never really thought that I wasn't good enough to be there. I always felt I was just one innings away from getting my feet on the ground, but unfortunately it didn't come.''
Apart from his debut, McCullum's big moment of the summer came when he was named in the Black Caps XI for the final one-dayer against England at Carisbrook.
While playing in front of family and friends made for a special night, he was unable to mark it with a big innings.
"The game at Carisbrook was quite bizarre. I felt really good; I'd prepared well and I was thinking, 'Yep, this is my ground'.
"Then I went out there and got out to a ball that you wouldn't normally get out to. That was really disappointing.''
McCullum said he tried to take no notice of some of the less positive comments coming through about his performances.
"The game's hard enough. How I feel myself about how I'm playing is more important than hearing people say you're not up to scratch.''
With winter now approaching, McCullum is settling in for several months of fitness training and working with Otago coach Glenn Turner.
He is also working on his dicky knee and seeking help from a biomechanist to change his wicketkeeping technique to place less stress on both knees.
McCullum plans at some stage to seek the advice of retired Black Caps gloveman Adam Parore, whom he has greatly admired for years.
He remains confident his first taste of international cricket will not be his last.
"I'm looking forward to the day when I've done all the work and everything falls into place.
"Hopefully, that day will come and I'll be playing cricket at the top level, because it's exactly what I want to do in my life.''
(Story appeared in the ODT on April 20, 2002)
