Pat Cummins and the perils of being framed as privatisation's pin-up boy

PL on the Australian captain and his role in these uncertain times

Who’s your daddy?

I’ve been known to say that one is best advised never to find themselves standing between a journalist and a free meal, or a cricketer and a bag of money. In the current climate, it’s the latter scenario that generates the greatest risk of injury, to one and all.

There are bags of money out there, and there’s apparently an unseemly stampede for them.

There are reports in the Nine papers this morning that Pat Cummins is threatening to go to South Africa in January 2028 and play in the SA20 instead of the Big Bash League, which is on at the same time. You might argue that Cummins, who has not been sighted in the BBL for the best part of a decade, won’t be missed, but even the threat of the Australian captain opting to play in a rival country’s franchise competition over his own is confronting.

Cummins’ management denies the story and has every right to be concerned should the Australian captain become the pin-up boy for privatisation. The bowler has no intention of playing in the SA20. Why would he when he has the biggest three-year deal ever offered in Australian cricket on the table? A deal, it should be said, that is designed to deal with such distractions. But cricket needs to be alert that not everyone is on the same wicket as the blue-eyed captain. Not everybody has such certainty about where they will be and what they will earn, and Cummins would be aware of the pressure on them. He might live in the big house, but they are his tribe.

The senior playing group did not take well to NSW’s board member Ed Cowan’s comments that any threat to join the SA20 was a “total furphy”.