The New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman writes in his new book, Brendon McCullum -- Inside Twenty20, that he was approached by captain Daniel Vettori with the bad news after last year's Champions Trophy in South Africa, around the time coach Andy Moles quit as coach following reports of player unrest.
"I was given a couple of different reasons," McCullum wrote.
"One was that my performances had slipped and I'm not too proud to admit that I could not argue with that. I hadn't exactly set the world on fire.
"The other reason I found a lot tougher to take. There was a belief that I was influencing the players in the wrong way. I have to admit I was really upset by that.
"I concede my approach to the tour in Sri Lanka had been wrong, because I was disillusioned in the way I had been sidelined, but aside from that I believe I have always had the best interests of the team at heart.
"The first thing I did was ring Stephen Fleming, my manager. I was fuming but he told me straight out: 'Mate, I think it's the best thing that could have happened'. He believed the demotion would allow me to concentrate on my own game."
But another prediction by Fleming, that McCullum's sidelining from the team's decision-making process would remove his name from association with the Moles situation, was off the mark.
"Ironically, if anything, the fact I was dumped so close to Moles meant that people made a connection that I was being punished for the way the whole Moles thing panned out. Sometimes you just can't win," McCullum wrote.
"Yes, I was one of the players who felt we needed a new direction, yes I might have articulated my feelings in informal conversations with other players, but I never went to anybody with a position of authority and said that I believed Moles had to go. There were no secret meetings, nothing like that."
McCullum said by the time they got to South Africa for the Champions Trophy, after an unhappy tour of Sri Lanka, Vettori was virtually running team on his own.
"The team had actually got to the point where we were acting without a coach anyway. If someone needed help with their batting they were not going to the coach, they were going to someone else in the team, or were seeking people from outside the set-up. Guys were starting to sort themselves out.
"I'm still a little unsure about who decided to get rid of Moles, but the fact was that, by South Africa, most of the players had just switched off. There's no kind way of saying it but it was obvious to anybody who was around the team that very few people were listening to what he had to say any more."
McCullum said the news Moles had finally walked came as a relief.
"I can't say that I was disappointed by the news. I didn't lose any sleep over it. I had nothing against Molar as a bloke, but I knew he was not the right man for the job."
