There is talk, and it is not idle, that New Zealand could even win the World Cup with McCullum at the helm. While McCullum’s star keeps rising, so Carter’s seems to be fading. Why the comparison? It is not about the opinion I expressed recently in this column about the relative merits of the CWC and the Rugby World Cup (the latter is much more important), but rather it is about the manner in which the careers of Carter and McCullum have enfolded, and, more importantly, how they began.