How Australian Cricket captain Pat Cummins shattered the theory fast men can’t think quick

It took Australia 144 years to realise a fast bowler can captain a cricket team. How many great skippers have missed out because of the ‘no fast men’ theory, writes Robert Craddock.

It took Australia 836 Tests and 144 years to discover a stunning fact … a fast bowler can actually captain a cricket team.

Pat Cummins now has the World Test Championship, the Ashes and the 50 over World Cup in the trophy cabinet as gold-plated proof that bowling fast and thinking fast are not mutually exclusive skills.

Incredibly, the only fast bowler to captain Australia in a Test before Cummins was the great Ray Lindwall who did it for a one-off cameo in 1956.

You cannot reshape history but you wonder whether Australia would have done things differently if they knew what they did now – that the right man can do both jobs.

It took 144 years, but Pat Cummins has finally put an end to the theory that a fast bowler couldn’t captain Australia. Picture: Adam Yip

Here are a few fast men who might just have been up to the leadership challenge had not it been for the “sorry, no fast men’’ theory …

KEITH MILLER: Overlooked for the same reasons as Shane Warne … selectors felt the “loose cannon’’ within him made him unsuitable for the role. It’s a shame.

Much like Warne, he had a flare all of his own as a leader.

Even simply leading by example as a skilful fast bowler and cavalier batsman would have been a major source of inspiration to his troops.

Keith Miller, the dynamic allrounder in the late 1940s and the early 50s, was overlooked for the same reasons as Shane Warne... selectors felt he was a ‘loose cannon’.

GEOFF LAWSON: “Henry’’ Lawson was one of the greatest of all Sheffield Shield captains with a gung ho strategy years ahead of its time.

When many others were playing not to lose in the 1980s he would go flat out for victory including one season when his NSW Blues lost more games than anyone – yet still won the title because they won more than they lost.

It would have been tough as a young fast bowling spearhead to captain a Test team but there were times when Kim Hughes got the job – such as the 1982 tour of Pakistan - when Lawson could have done it.

ALAN DAVIDSON: With a bowling average of 20 per wicket and a batting average of 24 “Davo’’ was a genuine great of the game, so thoughtful and considered that he was on several major business boards beyond his 80th birthday.

But because he often played with preferred skippers Richie Benaud and Bob Simpson, Davo never bothered thinking about himself as a captain.

He would have been an interesting choice for all sorts of reasons.

He played in an era when the battling Ian Craig and the grafting allrounder Ian Johnson captained Australia and would have been a better choice than both of these.

Alan Davidson was a genuine great of the game, but never bothered thinking about himself as a captain. Picture: James Horan

JEFF THOMSON: Think Thommo and you think raw pace, raw words, a man of action.

But, when captaining the Queensland Sheffield Shield team he was a deceptively good leader who had one great quality which bankrolled his every move – his players loved him.

The closest he got to the Test captaincy was when all his mates were signed up by Kerry Packer – who he later joined – and he was Bob Simpson’s vice-captain in the West Indies.

JASON GILLESPIE: There’s a splash of Captain Pat about Gillespie in that if you start with a dose of humility and sincerity and are one of the best players in the team you are always a chance of pulling it off. Gillespie loves the game from all angles and would have had one key thread in place had he been asked to fill in for an injured Waugh or a Ponting as Adam Gilchrist was … everyone liked him. His team-mates would have rallied for “Dizzy’’.

Originally published as How Australian Cricket captain Pat Cummins shattered the theory fast men can’t think quick