Cult of Pat Cummins: from ‘villain’ to leading man in Sunrisers’ Hollywood-like thriller
Despite having broken more than a billion Indian hearts in the World Cup only five months ago, Pat Cummins has gone from villain to superhero.
“Mawa Hollywood hero avvachu, kaani SRH ki vachi cricket
addutunnadu”
Now, I’m not a Telugu speaker. I was sent this by a friend in Hyderabad who is though. It translates to, “He could have been a Hollywood hero but instead decided to do us a favour and play for SRH.”
The “he” here of course is Pat Cummins while SRH is Sunrisers Hyderabad, the franchise that Australia’s Test captain has been in charge of in the IPL’s 17th edition.
On the field, he’s lifted last year’s wooden spooners into playoff contention this season, transforming them into the most entertaining team of the tournament. Off it, he has become a cult hero, with the vibrant city of Hyderabad caught up in a Pat Cummins frenzy.
The Sunrisers skipper is everywhere, and they can’t get enough of him. If he’s not filling up malls and super stores by merely showing up, the biggest film stars in town are clamouring to rub shoulders with the Australian cricketer who they insist should have been away starring in Hollywood movies.
Let’s face it, Cummins is an easily likeable man. Both the irony and the extent of Hyderabad’s burgeoning craze for him though is perhaps summed up best by what he’s requested to do most often at every public function he attends.
Remember how Cummins had famously said he “aimed to silence” the 100,000 Indians at the Narendra Modi Stadium before the World Cup final? Before subsequently doing just that and talking about how there was nothing more satisfying.
Well, despite having broken a billion Indian hearts only five months ago, it’s this otherwise “ultimate villain” move that Cummins’ adoring fans want him to re-enact. In terms of actually putting his finger to his lips, or at times even making the “Shhh” sound, just like did, figuratively speaking, in Ahmedabad in November.
And wherever he goes, including at the matches at the franchise’s home ground in Hyderabad, he’s got thousands chanting, “Silence, silence …” at him. Endearingly, that is. Yeah, India, where you can turn from grinch to superhero.
Cummins, of course, is not the first high-profile Australian cricketer to win Hyderabad over. Nobody did it quite like David Warner. If anything, no other Aussie even understood how to do it quite like Warner did.
He led the Sunrisers to their only IPL title to date in 2016 alongside being one of their most prolific batters ever. But what Warner also did was to embrace the individuality of Hyderabad as a city, starting with their obsessive love for their homegrown film industry.
Now some context. Bollywood doesn’t hold sway over all of India like is presumed overseas. Every major state has its own film industry. And Tollywood, where the ‘T’ stands for Telugu – the language spoken predominantly in Hyderabad and neighbouring Andhra – is as big if not bigger than Bollywood. In fact in 2022, Tollywood reportedly earned $322 million as compared with Bollywood’s $297 million, making it the second-biggest film market after Hollywood. The turnaround for them came through big-budget movies laden with superheroes and over-the-top action and dancing that captured more global audiences. So much so that the Best Original Song award at the Oscars last year went to Naatu Naatu, the soundtrack from a blockbuster Tollywood movie that took the world by storm.
To Warner’s credit, in addition to his feats on the field, he catered to that aspect of their fandom and became an unlikely bridge between cricket and Tollywood. You just have to check out the veteran opener’s Instagram from the last few years to know just how. But while Warner was getting Hyderabad to swoon over him by shaking his leg to every popular Telugu song on social media, Cummins in turn is sweeping Hyderabad off its feet – without yet breaking into dance.
He’s doing so by being himself on and off the field. Yes, he has been on camera mouthing popular movie dialogues in Telugu — in one take, too, as I was duly informed. And even performing a couple of signature moves, including the Pushpa that Warner popularised during the World Cup, where he’d guide the back of the right hand around the chin after taking a catch or scoring a century.
It’s safe to say that in a city infatuated with superheroes, Pat Cummins has fit the bill perfectly. The Clark Kent glasses that he says he can’t see without only add to the allure as clips of his face being morphed into that of Superman’s have already started doing the rounds.
Not surprisingly, they’ve also had him raving in interviews about the famous Hyderabadi biryani, but even there he’s won them over with some home truths, insisting you can’t do without an afternoon nap once you’ve eaten it.
For all the off-field love he’s garnered, though, where Cummins has really shone through the most is with ball in hand and as captain. In a season, where big scores and six-hitting have been the major themes, the Aussie has held his own and only been taken to the cleaners on a couple of occasions.
A few days ago he bowled a magical over to help Sunrisers come from behind and beat table-toppers Rajasthan Royals by one run. Two nights ago he started his spell with a wicket maiden, in the fourth over of the Mumbai Indians innings. It took an awe-inspiring innings from the No.1 ranked T20I batter in the world, Suryakumar Yadav, to get the better of Cummins and his team.
It was Cummins’ cameo with the bat earlier on a tricky pitch that gave his team a chance to even stay relevant in the contest for as long as they did.
He’s had a few hits and misses in recent years at the IPL. But in what is his first tryst with captaincy in T20 cricket, he’s played a vital part in rejuvenating a franchise that’s struggled to make a mark for a few years. And he’s also won over the local Indian players.
As one of them, T Natarajan, who famously played that Gabba Test in 2021 after being a nets bowler on tour, said recently, “Pat Cummins gives me a lot of freedom, he is very strong. He has told me ‘Don’t worry, whatever happens, I am there for you’ – I have become very attached to him.”
Just like Hyderabad have become very attached to their new superhero captain. And there’s a strong feeling that Tollywood might get to Pat before Hollywood inevitably does.
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