He likes a flutter and backs himself and teams he's in. So it should come as absolutely no surprise he reckons New Zealand are ready to tackle South Africa in their three-game T20 series, which starts at Westpac Stadium tomorrow night.
Scraping past Zimbabwe with two balls to spare at Hamilton on Tuesday night was not the ideal final lead-in but McCullum believes his players are playing well enough to approach South Africa in optimistic mood.
"None of us are 100 percent on how we're going to go, but we're pretty confident we are ready,'' McCullum said.
"Only time will tell whether we're up to the challenge. They've got a new-look team in the T20, we're ranked above them in that form, so I expect us to win this series.''
Indeed, New Zealand sit second on the International Cricket Council rankings for the shortest version of the game, behind only world champions England.
South Africa are fourth, six points behind New Zealand, the two being separated by Sri Lanka.
McCullum, without excusing some of the shoddy bowling and fielding on show against Zimbabwe at Hamilton, suggested the idea of itching to get stuck into the South Africans might have been nestling at the back of players' minds.
"Sometimes the night before Christmas you don't always have the most settled sleep,'' McCullum said.
"We got a bit giddy in some of our options and executions and wasn't our best game over the last few weeks, but I'm confident we can step up in the coming days and play at the level needed to beat South Africa.''
McCullum knows the South Africans are the yardstick by which New Zealand's progress will be judged.
Zimbabwe was one thing - and had they lost one of the six international games, all manner of scorn would have been heaped on their heads - South Africa at the other end of the spectrum.
"If we want to continue to improve as an international team, become consistent and move up the rankings in all three forms, then you've got to beat the good teams and do it consistently.
"That's the challenge in front of us. But it's also an opportunity, so we're pretty excited.''
McCullum used a boxing analogy for what lies ahead. He pointed out New Zealand "are going to be tested in areas we haven't been over the last few weeks, but we're confident of being capable of stepping up and going toe to toe with them.''
It's all good, rousing stuff but in this eagerly-anticipated tour, the only thing that matters is what happens on the park.
- David Leggat of the New Zealand Herald
