Pat Cummins’ raw revelation in tear-jerking interview about his mother’s passing

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has opened up for the first time since the passing of his mother in a moving interview.

Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins has given a raw insight into the last moments he shared with his mother.

In a one-on-one discussion with England football great Rio Ferdinand the Aussie skipper spoke about the passing of his mother.

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Cummins shared a tear-jerking story about his son Albie and the last meeting the two had with his mother, Maria, before she passed away from breast cancer in March.

The 30-year-old brought along a sentimental item to the interview, sharing the children’s book his mother had read to his son in their final moments.

“I’m not a very sentimental person so I had to think what in the house was important to me,” Cummins said on WeAre8.

“I brought a kids’ book. My son Albie is 18 months old. It’s his favourite kids’ book. It’s called Birds, and it’s from England, so hopefully you’ll recognise a few. He absolutely loves this book. He grabs it from the bookshelf.

“Just before Mum passed away, this is the book Mum read to him the last time he saw her, so it’s really special for me. My wife [Beckie] bought it so there’s a huge connection that brings us all together.”

Pat and his mother Maria

Cummins flew home in the middle of Australia’s Indian tour to be by his mother’s side, saying the loss is still “pretty raw”.

“I’m part of a big family, I’m one of five kids. It’s still pretty raw at the moment, but during the last few months I’ve been able to luckily enough spend loads of time with Mum and us kids and Dad, just sharing all those memories,” Cummins said.

“It hits home, really hits home, the kind of person you want to be, the kind of father you want to be. From that side. But in terms of the grief, I’ll keep working through that, speaking to others.

“So many people have similar stories, and I think I know them telling me about how they’ve kind of dealt with it and gone through it certainly helped me kind of rationalise it. So if I can help some other people down the track by speaking about it, potentially I will.”

Pat Cummins with his mother Maria, left, and sisters in Cardiff in 2015. Picture: Instagram

Cummins has declared he wants to play until he’s 35 and to get there he’s had to readjust his life after being consumed by cricket when he finally returned from a long run of injuries that kept him sidelined for almost six years.

“Cricket‘s basically 12 months of the year; there’s always a cricket game going on somewhere, and I played non-stop for a year or two,” he said.

“This is about four or five years ago (when) I kind of just came back from injuries.

“And I was just spent, like burnout and I just remember thinking, ‘Geez I’m 25 here but I want to do this until I’m 35’, I’ve got to find a way to balance all these different things’.”

Despite being criticised for his climate change activism, Cummins plans to not only remain actively involved but to increase his activity.

“We’d (Cricket for Climate) love to go overseas, India, England, there’s so much scope for making a change in those places,” Cummins said.

“I try to do my little bit to normalise the conversation and make a bit of difference to make his (son Albie) future a bit better.

“I‘d love to sit back in 10-20 years and just show the huge impact we’ve made.”

Cummins will return to lead Australia in the final of the World Test Championship final against India at The Oval in London on June 7 before the Ashes gets under way on June 16.