Australia’s newly-appointed Test captain Pat Cummins has revealed that he was asked to share any secrets he might have had before he was handed the leadership role by the selection panel.
Cummins was made Australia’s 47th Test captain ahead of the Ashes series after Tim Paine stepped down last week and took an indefinite break from cricket following the ‘sexting scandal’.
While Cummins was chosen for the top job, former skipper Steve Smith was handed the vice-captaincy, three years after he was suspended for a year for his role in the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket in 2018.
Asked if the panel had asked him “anything like a confession” before being appointed as captain, Cummins replied in the affirmative.
“Yeah, there were a couple of questions. I won’t go into detail,” Cummins told ABC sport during an interview. “It was a really good open discussion. We talked about a lot of different things. So we both left it feeling really comfortable,” said the 28-year-old.
The five-person panel comprised selectors George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide, former Australia batter and current CA board member Mel Jones, CEO Nick Hockley and chair Richard Freudenstein.
Australia had little time to prepare for the Ashes with the pace trio of Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc lacking in game time in red-ball cricket as they were busy with the ICC T20 World Cup.
However, bowling coach Andrew McDonald said he won’t accept any excuse from his pace bowling unit as the opening Test begins on December 8.
“It was always going to be a shortened prep, and less than ideal switching formats and quarantine and all that stuff,” McDonald said during Australia’s first practice session on Sunday.
“But I think the art of the modern-day cricketer is to be able to adapt to that. There’ll be no excuses from our end and I’m sure there’ll be no excuses from England’s end either.”
The members of Australia’s Ashes squad, who had participated at the T20 World Cup in UAE, are currently training at their quarantine centre in Gold Coast.
“We’ve had fantastic facilities up here. The weather has been challenging at times but we’ve still been able to get out into the centre. Also, these guys have got a lot of Test experience to draw upon,” McDonald told news.com.au. “So changing formats is something that they’ve been able to deal with across their careers.”
‘50-50 chance’
Perth has a 50-50 chance of hosting the fifth Ashes Test, Western Australia Cricket Association chief executive Christina Matthews said. Matthews said earlier this month she was “very positive about the match going ahead in Perth” despite concerns that players and staff might have to quarantine upon arrival.
Matthews was far from certain on Saturday. “I’d probably say at the moment I’m 50-50,” she said.
