Ashes 2023: Pat Cummins won’t take ‘spirit of cricket’ bait ahead of Headingley
Pat Cummins and his team don’t feel they owe anyone for the sins of the past. That view has shaped their reaction to the Lord’s controversy writes DANIEL CHERNY.
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Let’s consider a counterfactual. What if Pat Cummins had in fact decided to rescind his team’s appeal for the stumping of Jonny Bairstow?
And if Bairstow had helped get England over the line at Lord’s, leaving the series tied at 1-1 leading into the Headingley Test.
Giving English fans the benefit of the doubt, Cummins may have been lauded for his sportsmanship.
A modern-day John Landy. Helping an opponent when he didn’t need to, to the detriment of his own cause.
It could have further pushed back against the idea of ruthless Australians, only in it to win it. It could have been used as leverage against anyone who ever mentioned Sandpaper or Underarm again.
That idea was put to Cummins ahead of this match at Leeds.
He didn’t take the bait.
In a sentence he summed up the essence of the debate that has lingered since Bairstow trod off the arena on Sunday.
Asked by an English reporter if withdrawing the appeal would have “shushed a few people up,” Cummins spoke plainly.
“I don‘t think that’s aim of playing cricket,” said the Australian captain.
It was a sweet verbal cover drive to match with the best.
At the heart of the matter is this: Australia isn’t trying to win the ethical Ashes.
Australia is trying to win the Ashes, doing so ethically.
That much seemed to have been forgotten in recent days. Cummins, and by extension his team, feels the Aussies don‘t owe it to anyone to atone for the errors of the past.
That they don’t need to go out of their way to be the good guys of cricket. That try as some might to turn it into a points-scoring contest, the only actual scoreline reads 2-0 their way.
If there is a collective reputation to restore, then that is a construct being imposed upon them. They will not play by these made-up rules. They will just adhere to the actual ones.
There seems to be this sense of hand-wringing from many in England that cricket has to be played a certain way.
That it is not enough just to play hard and within the rules, you have to go out of your way to play nice.
That every act has to be done in the name of saving cricket and therefore done within the framework of a spirit of cricket, whose vague parameters seem to be redrawn whenever convenient.
Australians have in the past been willing to accept they erred. Even if Cameron Bancroft lied about exactly what was used on the ball in Cape Town at the press conference immediately following play on that fateful day, Steve Smith said straight away that “I’m not proud of what’s happened, it’s not within the spirit of the game.”
Smith continued “my integrity, the team’s integrity, the leadership group’s integrity has come into question and rightfully so. It’s certainly not on.”
There is a group of English fans and members of their media that want a similar admission of guilt from Cummins. But none was forthcoming. Because doing so would be owning up to a crime that hasn’t actually been committed.
“We did nothing wrong, we are all comfortable with that,” Cummins said.
“I think the way our team have conducted themselves over the last couple of years has been flawless. We have been fantastic and I think that was showed again on day five at Lord‘s.”
If there will be a mea culpa one day, it seems unlikely right now. Cummins doesn’t want to have to defend his team’s honour, but he will stand by it.
“The way our team’s conducted themselves over the last couple of years has been flawless. That showed again on day five at Lord’s. The way they conducted themselves in the Long Room was fantastic.
“Even the Mitchell Starc decision (when it was ruled that he didn’t complete a catch) ]the night before, the ways our boys accepted it and moved on from it was really good. Our players were outstanding in that regard.”
The spirit of cricket is a lovely idea in theory, but it is too easily malleable and retrofitted.
“I 100 per cent think spirit of cricket is a real thing,” Cummins said.
“I think at times there is nuance to it and everybody might see it a little bit differently, which is fine.
“I think it is one of the beauties of our sport, it‘s a gentleman’s sport and you want to maintain respect at all times for the opposition, the umpire, the fans, the game. It is one of the strengths of our game.”
Ultimately though, Cummins gets that it is a game, with defined rules. He wants to win. He will be a leader, but not a martyr.
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