KEY POINTS:
If the Halbergs Awards were suddenly to include a category for Comeback of the Year it would have to be a neck-and-neck race between Troy Flavell and Craig McMillan.
You won't find a recent story on either that doesn't refer to a 'resurrection', 'redemption', or 'rebirth'. You can add more re's to the list - reinvigorated, repaid (as in "the selectors' faith"), and relentless.
For all the gushing over Flavell - which has reached flood-warning level - he has yet to prove himself back at international level, the pinnacle of his sport.
McMillan has. And he's done it when few would have picked it.
While the 67-ball century he scored to complete New Zealand's inconceivable 3-0 whitewash of Australia during the Chappell-Hadlee will likely remain the centrepiece innings of his career, his modest-by-comparison returns in the Caribbean have provided even more compelling evidence that McMillan is not just a re-born batsman, but a re-born cricketer.
Twelve months ago McMillan, 30, could not have played the 57-ball, 33 not-out that helped New Zealand to victory over the West Indies on Friday. Playing second fiddle has never been in his make-up - it would have either been a failure, a flirtatious cameo or a blazing 60. But McMillan is finally backing his brawn with brain. On Friday in Antigua he was acutely aware of his responsibilities.
New Zealand didn't need quick runs and could not afford another wicket in case Mssrs Duckworth and Lewis were brought into play as storm clouds hovered.
So McMillan waited, and waited, hit the odd ball for four, then let the in-form Scott Styris have his head, sharing an unbeaten 102-run partnership.
It was an innings a million miles from his pyrotechnics in Hamilton. It was, and here's a word previously unconnected to McMillan, a knock of great maturity.
That pretty much sums up his Caribbean contribution so far. With New Zealand reeling at 19-3 chasing 210 against England he helped Styris, again, steady the ship with a measured 27 off 34 balls (though he would have been disappointed with his dismissal).
Against Kenya he cleared the ropes five times in his 48-ball 71 as New Zealand chased quick runs, and even his failure (10) against Canada was done in just six balls so it didn't disrupt his side's rhythm.
His bare figures - 141 runs off 145 balls at an average of 47 - do not look that flash next to the likes of Matthew Hayden and even Styris. His bowling - 13 wicket-less overs for 60 runs - has just been bit-part, but there's no doubt John Bracewell and Stephen Fleming will be rapt with him.
Gone are the improbable peaks and head-scratching troughs. Gone are the pot shots at his critics every time he gets a score, although he did allow himself this after his century against Australia: "Hopefully I've shown a few people that I can still bat and that I've still got something to offer the side."
The difference was it was said in a humble tone and prefaced by his acknowledgement that he hadn't played an innings like that for 18 months.
He's always been a bully and bludgeoner of attacks rather than a player that dissects attacks methodically. McMillan is cocky, you have to be if you want to bat like that. In the past that cockiness veered too often into arrogance, particularly in the domestic game, but that has gone now.
He took his dumping from New Zealand Cricket's 20 centrally contracted players badly, refusing to look in the mirror for answers.
He let his standards drop further when he turned up for an 'A' tour of Australia unfit.
He tried to find gainful employment outside of cricket, finding it humbling and dispiriting. Some people need to get kicked a few times before they learn and McMillan obviously was one because he hasn't looked back.
Macca's swagger is back, but he knows how quickly that can go. He will almost certainly fail again at this tournament at some point. But this time we will know and, more importantly, he will know, it is only a blip.
