Recently, Australia’s Test Captain Pat Cummins’ Penrith Cricket Club coach, Michael Wholohan, opened up about him and said he remembers how 15 years ago a teenager accompanied his older brothers to the club. He was bright with a big smile, which impressed him. His smile was so beautiful and big that everyone in the club loved it. Cummins soon developed into a fast bowler, and in 64 years he became the first fast bowler to captain Australia. Not only this, he also claimed the Ashes.
Cummins breaks the stereotype
The coach says “You ask him the toughest questions in the interview, and he will smile and answer. Engage him with the puzzling crosswords, and he will smile and pay attention to them. Scold him, and he’ll still be smiling. He always did it with a smile, and this is the true quality of a champion.” It is hard to remember an Australian captain who smiled more often or smiled at all. Steve Waugh used to smile lightly , Ponting smiled broadly, Michael Clarke often smirked and Tim Paine giggled. Steve Smith was all this, yet he smiled coyly, and even if he did, it was not charming as Cummins. He has broken the stereotype of an Australian captain as a throbbing alpha male.
The team adopted his characteristics
On the field, Cummins is rarely seen as antagonistic , he occasionally jokes and smiles but rarely engages in heated exchanges of profanity. His celebrations are serious matters , he once said that “I don’t like wasting time on rants and things like that”. His characteristics can also be seen adopted by the team, as in their recent tours there was no scandal or incident, no pre-series trash talk, and on-field conflicts never reached the match referee, which means peace and order prevailed.
Cummins stats this in his biography
In his biography “Captain Pat: Cometh the Hour, Cummins the Man” by Ron Reed, he says that the world wanted all cricket teams, especially the Australians, to tone it down a bit. I keep encouraging all the team players to be themselves , they do not need to impress anyone or sledge just because it was done in the past. I am really proud of the way they have conducted it. It was not a one man’s decision , we all talked about it beforehand and all bought into it , it wasn’t just me. I kind of set out what I wanted and the environment I wanted and shaped that.
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