Wellington, Jun 22 : New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum has taken losing the captain's job to Ross Taylor in his stride, and has vowed to keep on playing for the team.

McCullum today allayed fears in some quarters that he might be tempted to go elsewhere after batsman Taylor was named as Daniel Vettori's successor.

"I have a good five or six years left in the game and I really believe I have got something really special to offer New Zealand," McCullum told RadioSport today.

"I want to be part of a team which starts to get ourselves up around the top teams in the world," Stuff. co. nz quoted him, as saying.

The 29-year-old, a veteran of 57 Tests and 192 one-day internationals made it clear that he had no issues playing under Taylor and would welcome the chance to work as his deputy if required.

"We are both professional athletes and have a huge amount of respect for each other's abilities. We are both driven for this team to succeed for New Zealand and driven for this team to perform and get back to the days of old where we were a force in world cricket.

"I did want it (captaincy) but ultimately you have to move on. I wish Ross all the best and I will definitely support him along that journey. It is hard sometimes to cop it sweet but I had an opportunity to present my case and to show what I thought was the way forward for New Zealand cricket," McCullum said. (ANI)