After Brendon McCullum finished with Test cricket, he decided to get into the horse racing business. He had been dabbling for years, but had big ideas for expanding on it by building a public syndicate. The plan was to start off small but “grow to the point of purchasing some of the southern hemisphere’s most sought-after colts and fillies to attack the world’s biggest races” and turn his business into “a sexy, recognisable, funky name in the equine game”. Anyone who liked the pitch could buy in, and plenty did. At one point, McCullum had 18 horses in the stable and the best part of 100 investors.
Six years later McCullum is back in Test cricket, with another big idea. He wants to get England playing in such an entertaining way that everyone’s attention is drawn back towards the longest form at a time when interest in it is flagging.
