the times | Monday December 6 2021 57
The AshesSport
“Our head hunters should recommend a
fast bowler only as a last resort.” Mike
Brearley, The Art of Captaincy
Story goes that during the long injury
hiatus between his first and second
Tests, a gap of almost six years, Pat
Cummins grew tired of the daily
commute between his parents’ home in
the Blue Mountains, New South Wales,
and the campus at the University of
Technology where he was studying for
a business and marketing degree. He
asked whether it would be possible to
use the parking reserved for senior
staff, given there was no provision for
students.
When his mother found out about
this, she gave him the kind of dressing-
down that only mothers can. Cummins
was told in no uncertain terms that the
request was out of order, that it sugg-
ested someone grown a little too big for
his boots after only one successful Test,
and that a written apology should be
forthcoming. One was duly sent and
the slog to and from studies resumed.
The tale is taken from an excellent
profile of Cummins in The Australian
newspaper recently, a timely one com-
ing as it did weeks before his sudden
elevation to the captaincy. The tone
reflected many others written since
Cummins was appointed Australia’s
47th Test captain after Tim Paine’s res-
ignation. Here, they suggest, is a crick-
eter Australia can rely on: humble,
grounded, curious and committed,
bringing both cricketing excellence and
a wider perspective. The right man.
Reading the profiles, there has been
an echo of the comments about Alastair
Cook from the former ECB chairman
Giles Clarke, who said Cook and family
were “very much the sort of people we
want the England captain and his
family to be”. Portrayed as beyond
reproach — never a good cross to bear
— Cummins himself has been quick to
dampen unrealistic expectations but he
has been put on notice by the
comments of Cricket Australia’s
chairman, Richard Freudenstein, after
Paine’s resignation.
the outset, there must be good reason
why, in a game now almost 150 years
old, fast bowlers have generally been
overlooked for the top job. Since the
Second World War, Australia have
chosen only one, Ray Lindwall, and
then only for a one-off Test. In recent
years Bob Willis, Courtney Walsh and
Waqar Younis spring to mind as out-
and-out fast bowlers to have been given
the captaincy of their national teams,
but few others.
Brearley came back to the England
captaincy after the ill-fated experiment
with Ian Botham, a move that dimin-
ished the great all-rounder as a player.Cummins must redefine art of captaincy
Cummins is the son of an
accountant and a teacher; one of five
siblings, two brothers and two sisters. A
solid, family-orientated, country
upbringing. A sporty, but not too sporty
a background, and a precociousness
that brought him a first-class debut at 17
and a Test debut eight months later,
hitting the winning runs and taking the
man of the match award in Johannes-
burg.
But then injuries: one stress fracture
after another and a long period of
rehabilitation, which is when he
resumed his studies and met his
future partner, Becky Boston, who
comes from Harrogate, North
Yorkshire. They welcomed their
first child, Albie, in October.
Another profile, in The
Sydney Morning Herald, told
the story of how they met one
night in a bar in Kings Cross,
Sydney, and Cummins intro-
duced himself as a student not
a cricketer, something that
remained hidden until she saw
an advertisement with Cummins
in whites. Modest, then, with per-
haps a proper appreciation of
where sport sits in a life well lived
— an awareness not always granted
to the modern player.
Cummins has maintained a
curiosity about matters beyond the
boundary since his international
career resumed. His Instagram list of
favourite books read this year is not
the usual sportsman’s catalogue. He
is politically progressive, interested
in climate-change issues, for exam-
ple, without being too preachy. In
short, he seems intelligent, well
spoken and clean-cut, a timely candi-
date for an organisation worried about
corporate reputation after the teary
exits of the past two captains.
But what about the cricket?
Cummins’s status as an elite per-
former is beyond argument. He lays
good claim to being the best fast bowler
in Test cricket today, and is ranked the
No 1 Test bowler. He is strong and fast,
and, having overcome the serious back
injuries of his youth, has put together
an impressive CV. Like Virat Kohli,
he carries a torch for Test cricket,
having frequently announced it as his
favourite form of the game, despite the
millions earned in the Indian Premier
League.
But, with a nod to Brearley’s quote atBotham had lost his spark and his confi-
dence. As a player, Botham wanted to
bowl all day long; as a captain, he was
never quite sure when or how long to
bowl himself for, a key challenge for a
bowler-captain. “They tend to either
overbowl themselves or not bowl
enough, from conceit, modesty or
indeed self-protection,” Brearley wrote.
There are many all-rounders who
have taken to captaincy with distinc-
tion. Ray Illingworth is regarded as one
of England’s toughest, most pragmatic
and successful captains. Richie Benaud
is thought to have been one of the
shrewdest and most imaginative for
Australia (and it is often said that the
all-rounder Keith Miller was the best
captain Australia never had). Imran
Khan was an inspirational captain of
Pakistan. Specialist fast bowlers, not so
much.
Willis was thought to have done a
decent job but Brearley touched on the
difficulties. With ball in hand, Willis
“shut himself into a cocoon of concen-
tration and fury”, so maintaining some
kind of tactical awareness at the same
time must have been difficult.
England have never plumped for a
fast bowler since, despite the claims to
seniority of Stuart Broad and James
Anderson. Brearley wrote: “It takes an
exceptional character to know when to
bowl, to keep bowling with all his
energy screwed up into a ball of aggres-
sion and to be sensitive to the needs of
the team, tactically and psychologically.”
Can Cummins manage all this? Can
he break the mould? Can he control his
emotions in a one-on-one contest with
a batsman and think critically and
coolly about the bigger picture? Can he
find the right balance between under-
bowling and overbowling himself?
How will he combine the extreme
physical demands with the constant
requirement to be thinking about the
game. No more grazing at fine leg in
between overs to rest up. Will his body
last the course?
All these are legitimate questions
that must be answered. At the Gabba
yesterday, he lined up with Joe Root
alongside a giant replica urn and he
certainly looked the part. Still, anyone
who says that Rocky IV is the best sports
movie ever made must have his flaws.
It is on the field, as Cummins tries to
balance the intense demands of
captaincy and fast bowling, that
England will look to expose them.Mike Ather ton
Chief Cricket
Correspondent,
SydneyAshes captains
Most Ashes Tests as captain
England Archie MacLaren
(22 matches, 1897-1909)
Australia Allan Border
(28 matches, 1985-93)
6 Mike Atherton holds the post-
Second World War record for
England (15 matches, 1993-2001)Quickies as Ashes captains
Ian Botham (Eng): Oversaw a
draw and defeat in 1981 before
relinquishing captaincy and
making the series his own
Bob Willis (Eng): Was skipper
on the 1982-83 tour, taking
18 wickets, but lost series 2-1
Andrew Flintoff (Eng): After
2005 heroics, was captain in
2006-07 as England were
whitewashed 5-0 down underBest of the spinner Ashes captains
Warwick Armstrong (Aus): The leg
spinner won eight of his ten Tests,
including a 5-0 whitewash in 1920-21
Richie Benaud (Aus): Won eight of
his 14 matches as captain between
1958 and 1963, taking 63 wickets
Ray Illingworth (Eng): Captained for
11 matches, including the 1970-71
tour, when England regained AshesTests as Ashes captain by role
Aus Eng Total
Batsman 245 240 485
Fast bowler 0 10 10
Spin bowler 9 1 10
All-rounder 66 81 147
Wicketkeeper 15 3 18
Total 335 335 670f e t t w s f d d l d l t y( ( 6 S A 2 2 w B W WCummins will
be the first fast
bowler to lead
Australia in a
Test since 1956