Ian Chappell heaps praise on Pat Cummins’ captaincy, reveals his control over national team
Cricket legend Ian Chappell has revealed his adoration of Pat Cummins’ captaincy, while making an intriguing revelation about his leadership.
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Cricket legend Ian Chappell has heaped praise on Pat Cummins’ captaincy ability while declaring there is no doubt he runs the Australian team – not coach Andrew McDonald.
Chappell, who captained Australia between 1971 and 1975, penned a column for ESPN on Sunday featuring the line: “Any cricketer who isn’t inspired by Cummins is in the wrong game.”
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His words of praise come after Cummins led Australia to a sixth Cricket World Cup title in November, an achievement that’s proven many who doubted his captaincy ability – particularly as a fast bowler - wrong.
“I thought he’d be a good captain but he has exceeded my expectations,” Chappell wrote for ESPN cricinfo.
Chappell went on to argue 30-year-old fast bowler is ‘putting himself in the same category’ as Imran Khan of Pakistan, Richie Benaud of Australia and Ray Illingworth of England as the greatest bowling captains of all time.
Cummins has seemingly achieved it all since being appointed captain in 2021, winning the World Test Championship, retaining the Ashes and now claiming the One-Day World Cup in India.
Earlier in his career he was also part of Australia’s 2015 World Cup win, played every match of Australia’s 2021 T20 World Cup and has been ranked the world’s No. 1 Test bowler.
It’s an incredible playing resume and according to Chappell it’s allowed him to dictate how the Australian team plays, more than coach Andrew McDonald.
Possibly Chappell’s most intriguing remark came as he touched on Justin Langer’s dramatic exit as Australia coach in 2022, and the resulting control Cummins has gained over the team since the departure of a coach who many players considered overbearing.
“Don’t be fooled by the controversy surrounding coach Justin Langer and his eventual departure,” Chappell wrote.
“Once appointed, Cummins earned the right to choose the coach he wanted.
“He now works with coach Andrew McDonald but be in no doubt who is running the cricket side of things - it is, as it should be, the captain.
“While I can guarantee from personal experience that a lot of codswallop is written and spoken about what happens on the cricket field, it is refreshing to watch Cummins and his team in action.
“Cummins’ side is often spoken about as an ultra-aggressive Australian unit minus the ugly side effects.”
After revealing his admiration of Cummins’s stance on climate change, Chappell went on to accept there have been some challenges in Cummins’ captaincy, such as his battle with veteran England captain Ben Stokes.
However Chappell explained those challenges would only make Cummins a better leader in the long run.
“Someone once wisely wrote, ‘Good captaincy is like pornography; it’s hard to define but you know it when you see it.’” Chappell wrote.
“Cummins was the right choice as Australian captain and he has done an extremely good job.
“Even in the ultra-demanding climate of Australian cricket, he has earned the right to remain captain for as long as he wants the role.”
Pat Cummins responds to ‘woke’ criticism
Often called the second most important job in Australia behind the Primer Minister, Cummins has used his platform to highlight causes he believes in, in particular climate change, kneeling for Black Lives Matter and the Voice to Parliament referendum.
Labelled “a woke far-left climate catastrophist clown” and “Captain Woke” among a torrent of abuse over his public stance, Cummins has heard it all.
But when asked by Sarah Ferguson on ABC’s 7.30last Wednesday night whether the backlash may make him rethink speaking his mind, Cummins doubled down.
“It definitely makes you stop and think,” he began.
“With this role, it’s got such a large scale in terms of the amount of people that have an opinion on anything you do. So even if 90 per cent are with you, that 10 per cent is still a lot of people.
“It makes you think, double think if the way you’re going about it is the right way. It makes you change or, if anything, it’s probably emboldened some of my views that this is a good thing.
“If I don’t stay strong on this and I pander to a loud minority, that’s not a good thing.”
But with so many people, judging his every step, does the criticism ever get inside his head?
“I think you’d be lying if you said it doesn’t,” he said.
“I think you’ve got to find ways to manage it just like you manage your body as a professional athlete.
“At times you wind it up when you feel like you need a little extra motivation and other times when it’s not servicing a purpose, you try to shut it out as best you can. But it’s part of the job.
“You’re not on an island. You can’t just say, ‘I want to play cricket in front of millions of people’ but also ‘I don’t want anyone to have an opinion on me’. That’s not what we sign up for. It’s something you get better at the longer you play.
“As long as I know I’ve got great relationships with teammates, family – they know who I am. I know who I am. Outside noise is just that.”
Despite the criticism, Cummins launched a program called Cricket for Climate, which aims to connect athletes to commit to personally donate to their own cricket clubs to help provide solar panels in order to help the clubs become carbon neutral.
Cummins himself sponsored Penrith Cricket Club and the program hopes to expand to help 4000 local clubs connect solar panels, become carbon neutral and help grassroots cricket save money to reinvest in playing rather than power bills.
“It’s a great place to encourage conversation around these topics,” Cummins said.
“I grew up in Penrith and we put solar panels on my home cricket club out there and it’s probably not your traditional area where you’d see old blokes sitting around talking about how good the money savings on their roofs are.
“There’s a lot of positives that have been had through that program and something I’m really proud of.”
But despite putting his money where his mouth is, it hasn’t stopped Cummins from becoming a target for the critics.
Cummins revealed last year he wouldn’t feature in advertising for then-Cricket Australia major sponsor Alinta Energy due to issues with the energy provider’s parent company Pioneer Sail Holdings, one of the Australia’s biggest carbon emitters.
Alinta Energy later announced it would end its four-year partnership with Cricket Australia in 2023 “due to a change in its brand strategy”, a deal believed to be worth $40m.
Ferguson said she spoke with the 79th captain of the Wallabies and current Independent Senator for the ACT David Pocock about Cummins, who said: “He is a leader for the times. He manages to be a great bloke under a huge amount of pressure. It should give Australians a bit of extra pride to have him representing us.”
Asked how those comments hit him, Cummins said “it was great to hear”.
“It’s probably not for me to say — I just try to be myself,” Cummins said. “I just try to be myself every day and I really enjoy the role, working with other people and trying to bring the best out of them.”
As for a stint in politics, Cummins said: “You never say never but probably not. I’ll leave that to David (Pocock) and plenty of other wonderful people.”
Originally published as Ian Chappell heaps praise on Pat Cummins’ captaincy, reveals his control over national team
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