Pat Cummins has to front up and explain all on ball-tampering scandal
Nick Hoult
Pat Cummins is no stranger to wading into public debates. He has been the most vocal current cricketer to join public appeals for humanitarian treatment of Imran Khan.
He has spoken about climate change, co-founding the Cricket for Climate action group and did not take part in sponsorship appearances for Cricket Australia backer Alinta Energy. He has supported changing the date of Australia Day in support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders; political opinions and interventions that have copped him a lot of criticism in a country where its athletes are expected to stay in their lanes.
On the field, he has been a magnificent leader for Australia. Truly one of the great fast bowlers and competitors who has led Australia to home Ashes series wins, and beat India in the 2023 World Cup final, silencing 100,000 supporters in Ahmedabad.
He was exactly the clean-cut family man Australian cricket needed when searching for a captain after scandals brought down Steve Smith and Tim Paine – one for cheating on the field, the other for cheating on his marriage.
But for someone who likes to share opinions publicly, the one debate he strives to steer clear of is what happened in Cape Town in February 2018.
That will be much harder now. What did he know? Was he aware of the sandpaper plot that Usman Khawaja says was widely discussed in the dressing room? Did he know it happened in Port Elizabeth, before it was publicly exposed in the next Test? Was he one of the two players that Khawaja says refused the plan to take collective blame? Is this upstanding cricketing poster boy really telling us he knew nothing was going on?
Fast bowler Chadd Sayers played in the final Test in Johannesburg and claimed: “Everything Usman says in his article is accurate”.
What does Cummins think of that?
We will probably have to wait for some time to find out.
Khawaja is at the centre of most criticism in Australia for ratting on his mates. That is the way it works. He is accused of profiteering on a book he wrote himself without the aid of a ghost. Well, that is kind of the point of writing a book, although considering other topics include his opinions on Palestine, race and the immigrant’s experience in Australia, his motivation is clearly more than making a few dollars.
Cummins was a co-signatory to a letter in 2021 along with Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood that stated the bowlers in the Cape Town Test were unaware of what was going on.
It was this that tipped Khawaja over the edge because it reinforced that David Warner, Smith and Cameron Bancroft were accused as the only plotters. It never made sense and was laughed at by figures in the game.
“If you are playing sport at the highest level you know your tools that good it’s not funny. Can you imagine that ball being thrown back to the bowler and the bowler not knowing about it? Please.” That was Michael Clarke, the former Australia captain.
Cummins and the other bowlers are standing by their 2021 statement and will add nothing to it, but silence cannot hold for ever.
Cummins will speak before the Test series against New Zealand starts on December 8. Will he add to what he said last month as Australia prepared for their first series in South Africa since the sandpaper saga?
Mitchell Marsh, the white-ball captain, was on that tour and played in the Cape Town Test. He will speak this week before the white-ball series against England. Warner is on commentary and Smith is rarely away from a press conference microphone.
“It’s going to be obviously a nightmare for Pat Cummins and the team leading into the summer of cricket,” former Test captain and CA board member Mark Taylor said.
Cricket Australia is likely to resist re-opening the case despite the emergence of new evidence: Khawaja saying it went on in Port Elizabeth, which contradicts the official findings, and that everyone knew. Testimony is evidence. Ignoring it without testing it is dereliction and undermines future investigations.
Nobody has come out of this well. Smith was a captain who let this fester and take hold. Where were the leaders in the dressing room? Where was the moral compass at the time, during the investigation and the years of silence?
Khawaja at least had the guts to say they should all share the blame.
Cummins is a brave, tough cricketer. Will those broad shoulders now share some of the weight of scandal?
The Telegraph, London
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