Source : the age
Of all the things published in Sabr, Pat Cummins took the biggest issue during his press conference with the suggestion that Usman Khawaja was not picked as Australian team captain because of racism.
“I think of all the things I’ve read this week, I think that’s actually the most serious. To think the job that I hold is quarantined from people based on their skin colour, that’s a pretty big statement. I think if you’re going to say that, I think you’ve got to have some evidence, and I just don’t think that’s the case.
“So again, I agree with Uzzy on a lot of things, but I disagree. I tell him that I disagree and him saying that if you’re Australian captain you have to be a certain skin colour, I couldn’t disagree with that statement any more.”
That’s it for Pat Cummins after answering questions for more than an hour.
We’ve had sandpaper, Stanley knives and concrete but Cummins has been asked to list other ways he’s heard you can tamper with a ball.
“Why not? Let’s get into it,” he said. “I had heard superglue on brandings, so you shine the ball there. I’ve heard zippers, I’ve heard superglue on gloves, the keeper’s gloves so you can catch it. I have heard nail polish, layers and layers of nail polish. I bite my fingers, so I would be terrible but growing [a nail] out and make it super hard and using that. I’ve heard, obviously, the Murray Mints as one.
“I’ve heard some claims from a long time ago that sandpaper was actually taped in between fingers, and you leave a little patch – that was a long time ago.
“So these are discussions that I’m sure every suburban change room has as well. We are having them in the Australian cricket team, but I think it’s one thing to talk about, but another thing to go ahead and do it. Again, all of those methods I pointed out, I’d say I’ve never seen in the Australian cricket team. Other than a bottle cap once.”
Cummins has just been told he’s hit the hour mark on his press conference, but said he wants to stay until he’s answered every question.
“I don’t mind, but I do need to bowl,” he said. “I’ve said it, I will answer every question because these things keep popping up… I’m here to answer it today, and then I’m done. I won’t speak about it again.”
Cummins has again said sandpaper is common in the changing room.
“It’s actually, again, quite a normal thing. We carry sandpaper, normally for the batters; they rough up their bats. But we actually use it for balls as well around training. You face a lot of reverse swing, so the batters want to face it and practice it in the net.
“We’ve scratched balls on concrete, I’ve seen someone use a Stanley knife, I’ve seen sandpaper used. So, all the methods are very normal around training, so again I think it comes to [the claim that] ‘there must have been a grand plan’ because for the non-cricket, maybe for the non-international player, it sounds absurd, and it is absurd to take sandpaper on the field, but trying to give a bit more context – it is a part of the change room.
“We may have been doing it around training, but there is a leap to then think it’s OK to take it on feel, but maybe not, perhaps as big a leap as some people may think.”
Cummins has just been asked whether he has ever seen conduct that was racist, or what he would describe as racist since becoming captain of the Australian team: “I’d rather not go into that. I think that’s maybe a story for Uzzy. But nothing since I’ve been captain that I can think of.”
When asked about when Khawaja called Cummins to give him a heads-up about the release of the book, Cummins said: “I think he mentioned that it just hasn’t sat well with him for a long time. And I think that’s, you know, three people got sanctioned and the environment at the time was ‘win at all costs’.
“There was an ugliness to it, I think. So, perhaps there’s some guilt maybe from how the team was,” he said.
Cummins expanded on the team culture in 2018 when answering a later question: “My memories of coming back into that side was there [were] parts that I didn’t really think was OK, you know; I thought the way we acted on the field was quite abrasive. I didn’t like some of the way we spoke to umpires, the opposition.
“I think there was a bit of an arrogance and a bit of an ugliness at times, that just didn’t really sit well with me as a young guy. And now that I’m captain, I’ve spent a lot of time making sure that that’s not the case with this current Aussie team. And, and I think we’ve been absolutely brilliant since 2018.”
Cummins has repeatedly expressed his dismay at what he has called Khawaja’s flippancy towards his friends and Australian cricket in publishing the allegations in his book.
“It’s something I’ve been grappling with the last couple of days,” he said. “Usman is a friend, but I think the way he’s kind of been quite casual and flippant with people’s lives in Australia. I don’t think that’s OK and I don’t think that’s what friends do.
“So, that’s what I’m thinking through at the moment. I don’t know why it’s taken Usman so long. Again, it’s only this week as a revelation to me that he knew what was going on, that he was sitting next to Cam [Bancroft] and that he told Cam to be careful. So, maybe he’s been grappling with that for eight years and that’s a reason he didn’t come out in the investigation at the time? Perhaps, I don’t know, that’s the reason.”
Pat Cummins said he will not pursue legal action over Sandpapergate claims.
“I did get advice this week that some of the things that have been said are probably defamatory, but I won’t be doing that,” he said. “Like, you’ve got to move on. It’s been eight years, I keep saying we’re moving on, so you’ve got to draw a line at some point. So no, I won’t be doing anything.”
Pat Cummins was filmed in an animated conversation with his wife, Rebecca, outside their house this week.
“It’s… very comical. Becky wears her heart on her sleeve,” Cummins said. “We weren’t having a spat. Becky was very frustrated, animated and really not happy with Usman.”
On being filmed, Cummins said: “It’s all a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? Like we’re here talking about something that was dealt with eight and a half years ago. Now I’m walking my daughter, one-year-old daughter in a nappy out the front, and I’ve got cameras chasing me and my family. Like, for me, that’s a bit ridiculous.”
