Ashes 2021: Pat Cummins named 47th Australian men’s Test captain, Steve Smith vice-captain, cricket news

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A fast bowler has been entrusted with leading the Australian Test team, but Friday’s captaincy appointment has reopened old wounds.

The 65-year drought is over – a fast bowler has been entrusted with leading the Australian cricket team.

The Tim Paine sexting scandal ignited a desperate scramble to find Australia’s 47th men’s Test captain less than three weeks out from cricket’s marquee series, and on Friday, Cricket Australia announced that Pat Cummins would lead the Ashes defence against England this summer.

Several players have donned the “VC” tag throughout Paine’s captaincy reign – Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood and Travis Head to name a few – but Cummins has been deemed the most suitable candidate after the three-year game of musical chairs, with Steve Smith his deputy.

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A specially convened five-person selection panel interviewed Cummins and Smith via Zoom on Wednesday, and glancing through the Australian Test squad, it’s clear CA didn’t have many other choices at their disposal.

A report from the Sydney Morning Herald suggested that Cummins was apprehensive about accepting the role due to the high moral standards being asked of the Test captain following the Paine sexting saga.

But after Wednesday’s interview with the selection panel, those concerns appear to have eased.

Even golden boys have skeletons in their closet

Cummins is the most marketable cricketer in the country. The blue eyes, the chiselled jawline, the humble persona – although it’s a moniker he is “not overly comfortable” with, he’s the poster boy of Australian cricket.

There are brains behind the brawn as well – Cummins can finish cryptic crosswords in 30 minutes, and he’s often filmed scribbling away at a newspaper during rain delays.

But most importantly, he’s heavily respected in the dressing room.

“There’s genuinely no dirt on the bloke,” New South Wales teammate Harry Conway said.

“It is 100 per cent authenticity all the time, I’ve never seen him in a bad mood, I’ve never seen him blow up at anyone, I’ve never seen him unhappy. It is bizarre.”

This is all without mentioning his achievements as a cricketer, which are many. Cummins has sat atop the ICC Test bowling rankings since February 2019, and currently boasts a superior Test bowling average to the great Glenn McGrath.

The only Australian with more Test wickets at a better average than Cummins is the recently-deceased Alan Davidson, who played his last international match in 1963.

He’s widely admired not just for his skill, but also determination and resilience – vital characteristics for a Test captain.

But the Tim Paine sexting saga should serve as a cautionary tale for Australian cricket fans – nobody is immune from making mistakes. Even squeaky-clean golden boys have skeletons in their closet.

Smith and Paine were both characterised by the media as national heroes during their stints as Test captain – two months before the infamous ball-tampering saga, Smith was pictured on the back page of Sydney newspapers alongside Sir Donald Bradman, one of the most respected athletes in history.

Following the Cape Town scandal, Paine and coach Justin Langer were framed as the figures who would lead the Australian men’s team out of one of its darkest chapters.

Yet both Smith and Paine lost the Test captaincy in embarrassing circumstances with their reputation in tatters.

In an ideal world, Cummins would avoid the mistakes of his predecessors and serve his tenure as Australian captain without drama or scandal – but he is human.

“The responsibility of being perfect is unreasonable, I think it‘s too much to ask of anyone,” Cummins told reporters on Friday.

“You‘ve got to have permission to grow. We’re going to have players come into our side who are teenagers, who are just out of school, who are growing up. They’ve got to be able to fail and know that they’re allowed to grow from that.

“At times, that sends a bad message, that everyone‘s perfect and nobody’s got any flaws. I’m certainly going to be standing up for players if they make some minor mistakes – they’re opportunities to grow from.

“We‘ve got to manage our expectations of everyone a little bit more – I think we’ve got to be a bit kinder and a bit more understanding at times.”

Smith nodded vigorously as his skipper made these remarks during the Zoom teleconference.

Australian Cricketers’ Association chief executive Todd Greenberg told SEN this week: “We need to be careful about setting for whoever takes over the next captaincy that they’ll be perfect as well, because there is no human being I know, not you, not I, not anybody, who will be perfect and not make mistakes.

“We are not appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury here.”

Cummins, of course, is not immune from injury either. The speedster spent most of his early-20s in rehabilitation following a cluster of stress fractures that arose from an unsustainable bowling action.

He didn’t play any Test cricket between his unforgettable debut in November 2011 and his long-awaited recall in March 2017.

National selectors have hinted that Australia will implement a rotation policy for its pace bowlers throughout the upcoming Ashes, similar to the strategy employed during the 2019 series.

But Cummins adamantly claimed on Friday: “I’ve never rested from a Test and I doubt that will start now.”

Cummins will almost certainly be required to miss a match at some stage over the coming years, whether that be through a niggle, a full-blown injury or family reasons. Smith is expected to lead the side in his absence.

Australia found success under Smith’s direction, boasting a record of 18 wins and 10 losses between November 2015 and January 2018. He has also captained state teams, Indian Premier League franchises and Big Bash League clubs.

Smith’s poor judgment in Cape Town left him sidelined for 12 months and banned from all captaincy positions for two years, a suspension that ended in March 2020.

Although Smith has served his time and paid his dues, some Australian cricket fans would be reluctant to welcome his return to the captaincy.

The redemption story would be heartwarming, but footage of Smith once again donning the green blazer at the coin toss would infuriate many.

“There will be some negativity from some people around it,” Smith told reporters on Friday. “I understand that and I get that, but for me, I know that I‘ve grown a great deal over the last three or four years.

“I‘m a more rounded individual, and in turn, it’s turned me into a better leader.”

A recent poll of 75,000 news.com.au readers suggested the Australian public’s opinion of Smith was changing. Although Cummins was considered the frontrunner for the full-time captaincy role, he only received 35 per cent of the votes registered in our poll asking who should replace Paine.

Smith eclipsed him with 43 per cent of the vote – the scars of Cape Town may never heal, but he has for the most part regained Australia’s trust.

But as cricket icon Shane Warne penned in the Herald Sun: “Announcing (Smith) as vice-captain opens up CA for ridicule and criticism, and they should throw the code of conduct out the window. CA has to stand for something.

“We need to go into the Ashes now with a clean slate, not open up old wounds by appointing Steve Smith as vice-captain.”

Earlier this year, former Test opener Cameron Bancroft hinted the Australian bowlers were aware of the Newlands ball-tampering plot – the four bowlers who featured in the Cape Town Test match were Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Cummins.

The quartet later denied the claim, but Bancroft’s comments raised questions on whether the banned trio were unfairly treated as scapegoats for the sandpaper saga.

Hypothetically, if details emerged that the bowlers were indeed aware of the ball-tampering scheme, would Cummins’ role as captain still be tenable?

Spinning plates

Cummins has never captained a first-class match, and except for a handful of Marsh Cup games in February, he hasn’t commanded any cricket team since he was a schoolboy.

It has been 65 years since a bowler captained the Australian Test team; Ray Lindwall led the side for one match against India in October 1956 in the absence of Ian Johnson.

The perpetual reluctance to give pace bowlers the added burden of captaincy is understandable – the workload needed to bowl 25 overs in a day of Test cricket is strenuous enough.

Importantly, cricket captains take on more responsibilities than captains in other sporting codes, including but not limited to fielding positions, bowling changes and DRS calls. It’s a substantially more arduous task than, say, a football skipper.

Former England paceman Steve Harmison, who played in four Ashes series, believes giving Cummins the captaincy could distract from his bowling.

“If you put too much pressure on Pat in the Ashes that could prove the difference,” he told the Cricket Collective podcast.

“If Pat has more of an eye on the captaincy and is more worried about what is happening with his batting unit, he may not get the ball in the right areas.”

New South Wales teammate Chris Tremain told reporters on Monday: “Balancing up your workload, how you’d like to bowl and all the plans you have going on, it’s a really big challenge for Pat.

“If he does get the nod, there’s not a doubt in my mind he will do a great job. He is a fantastic leader. We saw that last year when he captained the white-ball team for NSW. But it is difficult.

“I guess that’s traditionally why it’s been a batsman … When you’re out there on the field, you have to worry about 10 other guys.

“It’s like spinning plates. You can get five or six plates right, you might neglect plate number seven or eight, and they fall and crash. Hopefully it doesn’t cost your team too much.”

To help lighten the load, Cummins expects Smith to have an “elevated” vice-captain role which includes making fielding changes and even bowling decisions.

“It potentially could look differently to how you’ve seen partnerships work in the past,” he told reporters on Friday.

“There’s going to be times where I’m out in the middle, it’s a hot day, I’m in the middle of a spell, I need to turn to people for advice for tactics, for experience. That’s the main reason why I wanted Steve to be vice-captain.”

If Cummins needed any additional inspiration, he need not look further than Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The cricket icon averaged 52.34 with the bat and 20.26 with the ball during his 48 Test matches as captain, claiming 187 wickets and scoring five centuries in that time.

He’s one of many bowlers to excel when handed the extra responsibility of captaincy, alongside the likes of England’s Bob Willis and Pollock.

Regardless, several of Cummins’ teammates have sung his praises since Paine stepped aside, backing him to successfully take over as national skipper.

“He’d be unbelievable,” Victorian quick James Pattinson told reporters on Tuesday. “He’s got everything. He’s got the attributes of an Australian captain.

“He’s got a calm head, he’s very smart and he’s got a good cricket brain. He’s got a lot of friends in that group. He’s just a great person. He’d be fantastic if he was the one that was appointed.

“I know it’s probably gone against the grain to have a fast bowler, but he’s the one guy who probably over the last two years has really dominated for Australia.”

New South Wales captain Kurtis Patterson, who played two Test matches alongside Cummins in early 2019, echoed his remarks: “He’s very calm … I think one of the things I found was great with Pat was that he just takes that out of the room. He’s a very calming presence. He never overthinks anything or overreacts to situations when they get tough, which they inevitably will.

“I think that poise he has will rub off on the rest of the team, as it already does.

“It’ll be an interesting challenge for him. It’ll be a nice challenge. I think he has got some support around him which he’s going to need. I think if he does get the job, he’ll do a great job.”

The first Ashes Test between Australia and England gets underway at the Gabba on Wednesday, December 8.

Originally published as Pat Cummins and Steve Smith captaincy appointment reopens old wounds



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