Brendon McCullum
Brendon McCullum could not lift the World Cup but definitely impressed with his captaincy.Reuters

Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum was named the winner of Sir Richard Hadlee Medal on Wednesday at the New Zealand Cricket Awards in Auckland. McCullum was recognised for his briliant season both with the bat and his inspirational leadership qualities. 

The first thing that comes to a fan's mind when he hears the name of McCullum is his ability to demolish any bowling attack in the world like a few other batsmen with insane brutality and brashness. His puissant attitude on the field seems to keep the players pumped up.

McCullum shattered a number of world records last year. Under his captaincy, New Zealand recorded most number of Test wins in a calender year. He was also the first New Zealander to score 1,000 test runs in a year and he achieved this feat against Sri Lanka.

He is known to be the first of the Black Caps to score a triple century as well. His ton against Sri Lanka in the ICC World Cup 2015 and his all-round performances made him the captain of the World Cup XI. 

Brendon McCullum won the prestigious award ahead of Kane Williamson and Trent Boult, who were presented the Redpath Cup for First Class Batting and Winsor Cup for First Class Bowling respectively. Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills and Jamie How were bestowed with special awards as all three of them bid adieu from the international game.