He bowls, he bats, he fields, he leads.
asserted
he → bowl → ?
Now for his next trick: could Patrick Cummins walk the tightrope while threading the needle and squaring the circle?
uncertain
Cummins → walk → circle
It’s a while since John Howard called the prime ministership Australia’s second-most important job.
asserted
Howard → ’ → ?
The symbolic authority of the nation’s men’s Test cricket captain has been somewhat downsized in those 25 years.
asserted
authority → downsize → years
But circumstances have reasserted that symbolism.
asserted
circumstances → reassert → symbolism
Only the captain could speak here.
uncertain
captain → speak → ?
Cricket Australia and white-ball captain Mitch Marsh might have sidestepped the issues brought up by Usman Khawaja in his autobiography, but Cummins understood what his position entails.
uncertain
position → sidestep → what
It fell to him to use that position – and to test the abundance of his natural gifts – to reconcile the apparent contradictions of the Sandpapergate story.
asserted
It → fall → story
As well as explaining Rashomon, he had to bring peace to the opposing and equally legitimate national impulses that have been pulling the cricket community apart.
asserted
that → explain → community
One is the public demand for transparency, to know, finally and unconfusingly, what went down in South Africa in 2018.
asserted
what → know → 2018
The other is the wish to put the past behind us and concentrate on the challenges of today.
asserted
other → put → today
Nobody said it should be an easy job.
asserted
it → say → ?
A week’s worth of headlines came out of Cummins’s Friday press conference: about 2018, about the punishments, about racism, about Cricket Australia’s conduct and processes, about the ongoing fallout within the Test team, about privacy, about some tectonic issues within the sport in this country.
asserted
worth → come → country
But aside from opening a pallet load of cans of worms, did Cummins achieve what he set out to achieve?
asserted
he → open → what
Did he pull it off?
asserted
he → pull → it
Obviously, his press conference won’t end debate, dissension and the usual piling on, but that’s society.
asserted
that → end → debate
Zombies can’t be put to bed.
asserted
Zombies → put → bed
Cummins did make slips.
asserted
Cummins → make → slips
He accused Khawaja repeatedly of being “flippant” in saying “we all knew” about the planned ball-tampering.
asserted
we → accuse → tampering
Flippancy suggests deliberate carelessness, and this is unfair to Khawaja.
uncertain
this → suggest → Khawaja
Cummins himself was glib when he said “we were all interviewed” in CA’s inquiry at the time, when they weren’t.
asserted
they → say → time
He appeared a bit unclear on the law about intentionally throwing the ball into the ground to rough it up, suggesting it was legal when it wasn’t.
uncertain
it → appear → it
These and many more issues will be picked apart.
asserted
These → pick → ?
What Cummins did was break the wearisome, manufactured, over-managed mould into which the captaincy had been squeezed.
asserted
captaincy → break → which
He spoke for 80 minutes, of which two were a prepared statement.
asserted
two → speak → which
As he had promised, he answered all questions, and many of them were the right questions about the broader context beyond the specifics of sandpaper being taken onto Newlands in 2018.
asserted
many → promise → 2018
He was candid and consistent and, most importantly, he conveyed the impression of speaking without fear (I can’t say what he was feeling inside, but at the beginning he looked nervous and tearful and so very, very young).
asserted
he → convey → beginning
He denied that he or the other bowlers were aware of any plan for illegal acts, let alone involved in such planning.
asserted
he → deny → planning
But he did acknowledge the team had, through its win-at-all-costs attitude, pushed the boundaries, bit by bit, until the sandpaper they used in the nets and on their bats ended up in Cameron Bancroft’s pocket on the field.
asserted
they → acknowledge → field
Cummins painted a nuanced picture of a continuum of “ball management”, where the line between legal and illegal was blurred, just as Australia had been blurring the line in other aspects of their conduct.
asserted
Australia → paint → conduct
Cummins said he had been uncomfortable with how Australia had walked that fabled “line”, and had helped to change that culture since he became captain.
asserted
he → say → culture
This fact, his track record, gave him authority.
asserted
fact → give → authority
For a long time, Australian cricket captains were known for their honesty.
asserted
captains → know → honesty
In more recent times, the pseudo-science of media management has got between the captains and their constituency.
asserted
science → get → captains
Personal weaknesses haven’t helped.
asserted
weaknesses → help → ?
But it’s been a long while since an Australian cricket captain has taken such a risk as Cummins took on Friday, to turn himself inside out on personal and professional sore points.
asserted
Cummins → take → points
Plenty of Australian captains have ducked and dived, and the accumulation of those acts has distanced the cricket team from a section of its community.
asserted
accumulation → duck → community
Cummins was seeking to set that straight, by being straight.
asserted
Cummins → seek → that
Judging whether he succeeded in a press conference feels a little too much like writing a theatre review.
asserted
he → judge → review
But if you take Cummins at his word – that this was not theatre, just the truth – I felt he did as much as a captain could possibly do.
uncertain
captain → take → much
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
