New Zealand have taken the vice-captaincy off Brendon McCullum in a bid to maximise the player's potential with the bat.

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McCullum already shoulders much of the responsibility in the Black Caps side, keeping wicket and being one of their key batsmen, as well as opening the innings in one-day formats.

No replacement is expected to be named, with skipper Daniel Vettori leading alone and a handful of senior players, including McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram and Shane Bond, all helping to ease the burden.

New Zealand have already lost coach Andy Moles this week, less than a year into his tenure, but convenor of selectors Glenn Turner played down the upheaval.

"Brendon being Brendon, he will (still) lead," Vaughan told the New Zealand Herald.

"That's his nature. At the moment he needs to be focusing on several areas but primarily that is around fulfilling his potential with the bat."

McCullum told the same newspaper: "It's disappointing, obviously, in many respects but the fact is I can now concentrate on my roles of scoring runs and keeping wicket.

"I still have some fairly big goals I want to achieve for New Zealand, including the captaincy, and this has not changed that."