As cricket tragics, we are blessed to have Robelinda‘s Youtube channel that has some rare gems from the past.
One that I recently discovered while researching Pat Cummins, was actually his first over in first class cricket. He ran in as hard as one would expect, and peppered the opener with a few rib ticklers, before finally getting him out.
Cummins till date runs in as hard as he possibly can, ball after ball, over after over, match after match, series after series.
He does this irrespective of the outcome. To be able to detach process from outcome, to detach decision from outcome is seldom a god-given skill. This trait comes from going through the hottest fires, walking the streets of deepest disappointments but head still head held high from repeated failures and disenchantment. But somehow finding the sheer indestructible reason of 'Why Are You Doing It?', to still continue down that road.
I can relate how Cummins must have felt from my days in cricket and now entrepreneurship.
Cummins has walked this road. And he has walked this road more often as the Captain of Australia. I watched him during the Ashes 2023, then the World Cup that once seemed lost, but Maxwell with the skipper himself at the other end, holding on for dear life and winning that match against Afghanistan, to finally taking a very very brave call at the toss against a seemingly unbeatable Indian team, to then winning the coveted cup.
He has had to fight in the streets, so to speak, on a daily basis with only his belief and his love for the team and game as his allies, which his team saw and made them want to follow him into these deep waters.
The Aussie saviour for SRH
Cummins is doing the same for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024. He has been able to take a team with talent and hold their hands into the rarified air of hard fought wins.
Wins that will make men from boys, wins and moments that will hopefully see Abhishek Sharma playing regularly for India soon. Moments that gave rise to a Nitish Kumar Reddy, moments that have seen T Natarajan’s resurgence, moments that have seen Heinrich Klaasen outbat even himself with a loving gaze of brotherhood for his non-striker, moments that have seen (at long last) Bhuvaneshwar Kumar taking more onus as a very senior member of the team and stop to think for others, moments that have seen the nervous Rahul Tripathi come out and strike the ball as well as he has ever done… The list goes on.
What sets leader Pat Cummins apart
This is what a leader does. Leaders take you to a place that you were not sure you could reach. Cummins’s concern for his team on the field is a joy to behold. I have not seen him once lose his cool, quite the opposite actually, he runs up at the end of the over, couple of pats on the back and a quiet voice that whispers "keep going, I'm here with you on this".
Sunrisers Hyderabad have a serious chance of winning IPL 2024, and that’s because Cummins has embedded true belief in the younger players.
In my experience as a cricketer, when younger players start believing in themselves to perform at their maximum potential when it matters most, the seniors start playing their best cricket. We will definitely see this with Head, Bhuvi and Klaasen in the IPL final on May 26.
The Sunrisers management need to understand that this can be a great franchise, and a well-respected one that can beat any team in the IPL.
They need to care for this team with kid gloves. They need to care for Cummins, without whom they would not have seen this day.
