Cricket: Brendon McCullum cut by Royal Challengers Bangalore

Former Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum has lost another T20 contract, with his Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore.

McCullum was one of 10 players released as the team elected not to retain his $770,000 contract, with 14 players were retained for the 2019 season.

McCullum tweeted his thanks to the team and captain Virat Kohli.

Thanks to the skipper @imVkohli and all the team @RCBTweets for an enjoyable time in last seasons @IPL. All the best for the season ahead fellas.

— Brendon McCullum (@Bazmccullum) November 15, 2018

"Thanks to the skipper and all the team for an enjoyable time in last seasons @IPL. All the best for the season ahead fellas."

The 37-year-old scored 127 runs in six matches at an average of 21.16 with a strike rate of 144.31.

Injured Black Cap Corey Anderson was also released, although he was only a late call-up for last year's tournament to replace injured Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Southee were both retained by the side. They were among a host of Kiwis retained by teams in the competition.

Thank you guys for a wonderful VIVO IPL 2018. It was great having all of you at Bengaluru@mandeeps12@Bazmccullum @chriswoakes
Sarfaraz Khan@coreyanderson78
Aniket Choudhary
Anirudha Joshi@AshwinMurugan8 @ImMananVohra
Pavan Deshpande#PlayBold forever, boys ❤️

(2/2)

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) November 15, 2018

Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne will remain with the Mumbai Indians, Colin Munro and Trent Boult were retained by the Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad chose to keep Kane Williamson in their set-up, Chennai Super Kings retained Mitchell Santner, and the Rajasthan Royals have retained Ish Sodhi.