If Pat Cummins is a national hero, we need to get to know him better

Pat Cummins is the fast-bowling Australian cricket captain. I spoke to him upon his return from his team’s victory in the final of the one-day World Cup against India, in India.

On top of the world: Australia has won the World Test Championship, retained the Ashes and has now become the one-day world champions under Pat Cummins’ leadership.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Fitz: Pat, if you’re going to be a national hero, we need to get to know you better. When did you conceive a passion for cricket?

PC: Pretty much all my life. I’ve got two older brothers and my dad who are all cricket-mad. So, as soon as I could walk I was chasing them around in the backyard of our home in the Blue Mountains and, maybe even from the age of four or five, sometimes filling in on their teams on the weekends in the field when someone didn’t turn up.

Fitz: I’ve previously written a story about how your fine parents were very kind to a little boy they met on vacation who loved his cricket and based his bowling on your actions. A few days later the eight-year-old received a package in the post containing some posters and match shirts signed by you! You must have been one of those little boys, once. Who was your hero?

PC: Brett Lee. And I remember getting a high-five from Michael Bevan as he walked out to bat one day and thinking, “I’m never gonna wash my hands!”

Pat Cummins illoCredit: John Shakespeare

Fitz: So when you met Brett Lee, was he everything you’d hoped he’d be?

PC: Yeah, absolutely. And now that I think of it, when I was still at primary school Mum signed us all up for a SpeedBlitz Blues TV ad where there’s 200 of us sitting in the crowd and we got to meet all the players, and I remember thinking, “Jeez, these guys are superstars but they’re actually pretty normal people”.

Fitz: So did it come as a surprise to you to find out you not only love cricket but that cricket loved you? And that you were world-class, making your debut at Test cricket at just 18?

PC: Yeah, and it all happened so quickly. I didn’t really think I was first-grade quality, but then I’ve made first grade and I’m kind of looking around and thinking, “You know, I’m no worse than anyone else here”. Then I got picked for NSW and thought the same. And then suddenly I was playing for Australia. It all happened in the space of six months. I was sitting in the change room, thinking, “How the hell am I sharing a change room with Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, when six months ago I was sitting in a classroom?”

Fitz: Speaking of classrooms, I couldn’t help but notice in that doco series The Test that your own bookshelf was absolutely chock-a-block with serious books. Not Max Walker books, not even airport books, but real books – of history, art, sport, fictional, classic, you name it. Which one of mine is your favourite?

PC: [laughs] Gallipoli. Leading into the 2019 Ashes and World Cup we went to Gallipoli as a cricket team, so I read it on the way over.

Fitz: You have also credited the book by the Lebanese philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game, with inspiring some of your captaincy. What did you take from it?

PC: Yes, I really enjoyed that book. I think it’s the whole concept of the ‘man in the arena’. There’s always going to be noise, conjecture and criticism, but it is really me and the other fellas who walk out there, with the coaching group, who are putting everything on the line, so we own it, not those outside. It gives me real clarity, and I always get a sense of calm from that book that unless you’ve really got skin in the game it’s hard to have a strong opinion that’s going to be accurate.

A young Pat Cummins bowling for Penrith Reps Under 10.Credit:

Fitz: You were made Australian skipper after two highly regarded captains before you, Steve Smith and Tim Paine, imploded in unforeseen and unprecedented circumstances. That gave the start of your captaincy a Steven Bradbury-esque quality. Were you not intimidated by the weight of it at the time?

PC: Yeah, I was, for sure. Especially to see two really good mates having their tenures end the way they did. It felt like I was walking straight into it, a little bit. I love putting everything to bowling and I wasn’t sure how the added dimension of captaincy, which I hadn’t really done before, was going to affect it. But since I was a kid, learning all about the history of cricket, you know the Australian captaincy is a big thing, so I felt a real sense of responsibility.

Fitz: Was there anybody you talked to at the 3am of the soul to say, “I’m not sure if I’m up to this?”

PC: Yes, absolutely. But everyone supported me and understood that while I was pretty green in the role I was going to have a lot of good people around me. And I felt that every other time in my life where I’ve had to step up into something unknown, I managed to find my feet pretty quickly. So I would give myself a little pep talk on that.

Fitz: And yet you were bitterly criticised early on for everything from your field placements to your bowling changes – and we haven’t even got to the hysterical howls about your stand on social issues yet. Do you read that stuff and does it hurt?

PC: It definitely comes across your desk. Sometimes it’s frustrating. You feel like you want to explain why you did what you did. But if you did that every time, you wouldn’t have a minute left in your day.

The late Maria Cummins with son Pat and daughters Laura and Kara.Credit: Instagram

Fitz: Australia had two losses at the beginning of this World Cup, against South Africa and India, which made disaster seem like a foregone conclusion. Things got so bad Michael Clarke even compared your team to the Wallabies! Yes, that bad. You must have had desperate moments?

PC: On the one hand, yeah. And I think we were a bit timid to start the tournament. So it was a good reality check. But we are a good side and, as long as we committed to how we wanted to play, I thought we were going to give ourselves a good shot.

Fitz: You’re going to be remembered for your captaincy in the final, for your aggressive tactics. Ian Chappell always said, “When you win the toss, nine times out of 10 you should choose immediately to bat first. On the 10th occasion you should think about it, and then bat first.” But you decided to bowl first.

PC: Yes, it was something that I didn’t take lightly, but I had a bit of a gut feel that it would work, that we’d be able to go out and chase what we need.

Fitz: You were also innovative with your bowling tactics, at one point using six bowlers in six overs. Daniel Brettig in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald said that with your choices, your field placements and your bowling changes you gave everybody “a captaincy masterclass”. Where did those innovative tactics come from?

Australia captain Pat Cummins and his teammates relished the sounds of silence at Narendra Modi Stadium, where they won the World Cup final.Credit: Getty

PC: Talking with the coaches over different ways to – especially in the middle overs of the ODI – create something from nothing. We’ve got plenty of all-rounders in the side, so why not have a lot of one-over spells and keep trying different ways to break up their rhythm? And yeah, it seemed to work pretty well.

Fitz: On your deathbed, in 70 years time, what is the moment you will think of from that final?

PC: I think the Virat Kohli wicket …

Fitz: You unleashed a pearler, he chopped it back onto his stumps, and the greatest batsman of his generation is gone for 54! Got him, yes! Do your talking, walking, pal!

PC: I was obviously very pumped. And then we’re in the huddle after that wicket, and Steve Smith says, “Boys, listen to the crowd for a second.” And we just took a moment of pause, and it was as quiet as a library; 100,000 Indians there, and it was so quiet. I’ll savour that moment for a long time.

Fitz: The victory was the final jewel in an impressive crown. The team you captain are now not only world Test champions and hold the Ashes, but are also one-day World Cup champions! And yet, in the course of your captaincy, as well as taking criticism over your tactics, you have been bitterly attacked for your public stand on things like climate change, Black Lives Matter and the Voice, with various commentators saying, “He’s too politically correct to be captain and he’s destroying the team.” This is your moment, Postman Pat who always delivers. Do you feel vindicated? This is your time to say, “Suck on that, dickheads!”

PC: [laughs] There’s some things that you don’t want to budge on. You can’t just leave your values at the door.

Fitz: Where did those values come from, the idea of using your position to make the joint a better place, that there are things worth speaking about much more important than cricket?

PC: I love this country. So I think there’s areas that we should celebrate and there’s areas that we can always improve, just like anywhere else in the world. But yeah, I’d say from my parents and family. You know, Mum and Dad have always been very clearly focused on what’s important and that’s always been instilled in us kids. And I think also playing cricket, and travelling the world for 12 years, opens your eyes. You meet hundreds, thousands of people along the way, and that always helps shape who you are and how you think.

Fitz: Speaking of your parents, the Barmy Army itself serenaded your late mother when she was ailing earlier this year with a lone trumpeter playing Maria from West Side Story …

PC: [softly] Yes, I played it for Mum. We’re all sitting around in the palliative care ward and Mum absolutely loved it. We all had a bit of a moment. Cricket has been a huge part of our family growing up, and for the Barmy Army to pay tribute to her like that was … was … was really touching.

Fitz: The Barmy Army aside, has India replaced England as the home of cricket?

PC: It feels like that. I mean, it’s unlike anywhere else in the world. It’s Indian jerseys everywhere on the streets, just on a random weekday night. There’s 10 cricket channels and there’s always a game going on, however obscure, at all hours of the day. And I’m sure there wouldn’t have been one person in the country who didn’t know there was a World Cup going on in India on Sunday.

Fitz: You said the World Cup victory is the greatest feeling you’ve ever had in cricket. Does it even beat winning the Ashes?

PC: Yeah, I think it does. The Ashes is special. But you play it every 18 months or two years. And it’s a two-horse race. This is up against every serious national cricket team in the world, and competing just once every four years. You might only get two or three cracks at it in your career, and to have played it in front of over 100,000 people in India and win, well, it doesn’t get better than that.

Fitz: Despite that, Test cricket is still the pinnacle for you?

PC: Yeah, absolutely. That challenges you in every aspect more than any other format.

Fitz: And yet, on a bad day, some columnists – like ME – write that T20 cricket can seem like the monster that ate the cricket world.

PC: Yeah, I’m kind of torn on this one because I love Test cricket and the history of it, and you feel like T20 does sometimes take away from that. But then you go over to India and you see them watching a T20 match every single night of the week, and with new countries getting involved and new supporters coming to cricket it’s hard to argue with the idea that T20’s anything but a good thing for cricket in general.

Fitz: Your favourite player of all time, male or female?

PC: At the moment probably Travis Head!

Fitz: Travis Head, who scored 137 runs in the final off 120 balls, while also taking the catch of the Cup to dismiss opener Rohit Sharma!

PC: But I also loved Shane Warne for the sheer showmanship, the way he just kind of commanded the crowd to sit back and watch him do something special.

Fitz: Finally, Sydney’s been agog this week that Mitchell Starc and Alyssa Healy have just bought a property for 25 million bucks in Terrey Hills. Can we take it that the times are pretty good for Australian fast bowlers?

PC: [laughs] Yes, well, we’re lucky that we play all over the world for a lot of the year, and wherever we go there’s plenty of eyeballs watching. Those two have been at the very top of their game and they deserve whatever they get.

Fitz: Well, you’re currently regarded as the best fast bowler in the world. How long do you want to keep doing it for?

PC: Well, I’m actually loving it right now and I’m 30 at the moment. If you can make your mid-30s and still [bowl] fast you’re doing pretty well. So hopefully a little longer left.

Fitz: Thank you. And long may you be steaming in from the Randwick end.

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