Vettori and McCullum prepare for tempo change

	Daniel Vettori: back in whites© Getty Images

From the heat, noise and chaos of Delhi to the bucolic tranquillity of rural Essex in less than 24 hours. Few journeys better encapsulate the changing face of world cricket than that of the New Zealand captain, Daniel Vettori, who - along with his deputy, Brendon McCullum - has finally arrived in England to prepare for the first Test at Lord's in exactly a fortnight's time.

On Wednesday evening, Vettori was right in the thick of one of the best tussles to date of the Indian Premier League. His four-over spell of 1 for 19 proved the perfect foil for Glenn McGrath's four-wicket heroics, as the Delhi Daredevils overcame the Bangalore Royal Challengers by 10 runs in front of another packed house.

Vettori, however, had no time to savour the occasion or even say many farewells. He was rushed straight out of the stadium and onto a plane which arrived at Heathrow at 7.30 this morning. "I left five minutes after the game," he said. "It was tight but I understood there was always going be a flight. Our owners own the airport so things got through very quickly."

The world stops for cricket in India, even long-haul flights. With the best will in the world, it's hard to envisage such star treatment coming Vettori's way over the next two months in England. Even a police escort to Chelmsford on Friday for New Zealand's four-day warm-up might be pushing the boat out too far.

Either way, there's no time for Vettori, McCullum or any of their fellow IPL players to dwell on the experiences they've just been through. At 11am on Friday, their England tour begins in earnest against Essex, and if the team's most recent first-class fixture at Canterbury is anything to go by, there will barely be a smattering of spectators in the ground, let alone any cheerleaders.

Vettori, however, insisted there would be no mixed feelings. "I've always been committed to New Zealand cricket, and we knew the Test series would take priority. It's an exciting prospect to be captaining a Test at Lord's, and Old Trafford and Trent Bridge have their own history as well, so that's one of the unique things about playing in England.

"Stephen Fleming always talked with such reverence of his times over here and I'll treat this tour in the same way. But in the end it's about trying to win a Test match, and not just a little bit of nostalgia. I want to win and I'll put everything else to one side for that."

Nevertheless, it was clear that there was a part of Vettori, no matter how small, that regretted not being able to finish what he had begun out in India. "Hopefully there will be a window for IPL so we can give full attention to both in the future," he said. "I think if you speak to the guys sincerely, they'd have loved to have stuck out there for another couple of games, but for me personally as captain, I wanted to get over here and start our Test tour.

"Winning the Test series against England is incredibly important to us. It's not something we've achieved all that often, maybe twice, so that's what we're involved in now. Historically we're not very good at warm-up games, so we need to make sure the Essex game is played in the right way and that we put some good performances on the board."

If Vettori was finding the change of tempo hard to get to grips with, then McCullum has arguably an even tougher assignment. No player better epitomised the glitz and novelty of the IPL than New Zealand's wicketkeeper, who launched the tournament with a scarcely credible 158 not out on the opening night against Bangalore.

"I felt my [status] pick up after that, because I was probably flying under the radar leading up to it," McCullum said. "I probably didn't quite have the respect for how big the tournament and the following would be, but as soon as we arrived out there, we started to work out it was going to be huge, and it continued to snowball. Every day, there were more photographers, more cameramen and more people in the grounds. I'm sure it'll be a defining moment in terms of international cricket."

From that to this. A showery, stop-start day in front of 500 spectators is what McCullum's next assignment is likely to be, and he's under no illusions about the contrasts between Chennai and Chelmsford. "Of course it's going to be a come-down, but having said that, there's a job to be done," he said. "I've got two four-day warm-ups to be a part of, to get myself ready to play Test cricket. I'm not going to be playing in front of 90,000 people, but I've got to stay mentally strong and churn out a performance even though the circumstances are different."

It's not just the surroundings that will be different. The entire tempo will have to shift down a gear as well, as McCullum and his team-mates attempt to get to grips once again with the nuances of Test cricket. "I'd probably try to hit the first ball out of the park anyway, but that's a mental shift that I've got to make in the next couple of weeks," McCullum said. "I'm hoping the change of environment will bring about a change in mindset. It's going to be difficult but, going forward, that's a skill we're going to have to develop, because we're never going to have times where you have sustained periods to concentrate on one game."

One way in which McCullum could be helped out is if the team management decide that he'd be better utilised as a specialist batsman. "If that happens, great, but my role in the team is to score runs wherever that is, and keep wicket. That's what I'm working hard on, if something else arrives, I'll look at that. It's something I'm aware of, but for the moment, I'm pretty clear on the what my role is.

Both players offered a firm "no comment" when asked if they'd been paid for their IPL services yet, but for McCullum the money was incidental to the experience he'd gleaned from his time with the Kolkata Knight Riders. "It's not just the money, it's the tournament itself," he said. "The chance to play with some of the greatest players from around the world. Having Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly in the dressing room, and working out how they go about the game, discussing tactics. While the money is fantastic, you can't buy that sort of experience."

Vettori agreed with that assessment, but felt that it was his team-mate who was the real star of the competition. "Brendon's innings gave it credibility," he said. "We went in there with a certain amount of the unknown, and didn't know what to expect in terms of the organisation and intensity. We were watching to see what the contests would be like, how the players would get on and whether the guys were just here to pick up a pay check, but after Brendon's innings everyone wanted to play hard, serious cricket."

There's more serious, hard cricket in store in England in the coming months, although it's more of the slow-burn variety. Even so, Vettori was instantly into training after travelling across London to the team hotel, aware of the need to get up to speed as soon as possible, out of courtesy for his team-mates as much as anything.

"I suppose you feel for the guys that are here, and you don't want to get caught up in two separate teams," he said. "But we are lucky we had pretty in-depth discussions before it happened, because if the team didn't want it to happen, it wouldn't have. We've received a bit of stick, but the guys understood we were only missing the one game in Kent, and that was rained out so haven't missed any cricket time, just a bit of time spent together. When we take the field together, it's all about New Zealand cricket."