Cummins and cricket must win friends by performing

For a brief moment in early afternoon, teenaged spectators at the Justin Langer Stand end of Perth Stadium unfurled a “Justice for JL” banner, more or less at the same time the former Australian coach was in the commentary box opposite.

After the banner was taken down by security, the same group launched into a “we want Justin/justice” chant, seemingly as much to break the tedium of a dour occupation by the West Indies top order as to inspire a West Australian insurrection from the 11,272 in attendance.

Pat Cummins removes Kraigg Brathwaite to pick up his 200th Test wicket.Credit:Getty

What followed, however, was to provide a reminder of a fundamental truth for the game in Australia: Cricket success can be a powerful builder of bridges.

Pat Cummins, subject to much criticism from a noisy minority in recent weeks for his principled beliefs in reducing climate change and backing equality, found a classic delivery with which to hit the off stump of his opposite number Kraigg Brathwaite.

That was Cummins’ 200th Test wicket, a milestone reached in a mere 44 Tests – Sir Alec Bedser, Sir Richard Hadlee, Joel Garner, Ravi Jadeja and Kagiso Rabada the others in the same club – and achieved despite six injury-stricken years passing between his first match and his second.

By reaching the mark, Cummins won adulation not only from the same supporters chanting for Langer, but also others in the stadium who had taken issue with his stance in other areas. A principled cricketer is still a cricketer.

Ever since Langer’s exit in February, those in and around the team have known that performance on the field, winning matches and trophies, will be the only way to quell the noise of many of their former mentor’s friends in high places.

Similarly, Cummins’ ability to assert his views in terms of what cricket can do to lessen the effects of climate change – epitomised by his hosting of a Cricket For Climate summit in Sydney this year, and advocacy of solar panels on the roofs of homes and cricket clubs – will be in direct proportion to how often he is taking wickets.

Australia’s methodical progress through the West Indian batting on day three was in line with the sort of diligent work that the off-field arm of the game will need to carry on through a summer that matters more in commercial terms than most.

Cricket Australia is in the midst of its most critical negotiation, the domestic broadcast rights deal that will supersede the $1.18 billion terms reached with Foxtel and Seven in 2018.

Numerous pressures are being brought to bear on this deal. There’s the balance between getting as much cash as possible and gaining the most exposure for the national men’s and women’s teams and Big Bash Leagues, the shifting balance between free-to-air, pay TV and streaming, and the vagaries of broadcast competition underlined by how Seven has spent much of the past two years in court with cricket while continuing to air matches.

Cricket Australia chair Lachlan Henderson.Credit:Getty Images

But an underlying fact next to all this is how cricket has been able to retain a large and diverse audience at a time when so many other sectors of public entertainment have been fragmenting across generational, gender and other lines; other sports, too.

In his address to CA’s corporate guests at Perth Stadium on Friday, its chair Lachlan Henderson spoke largely in terms of recommencing regular cricket contact with his home state of Western Australia after two summers in which COVID-19 restrictions created an unbreachable divide.

He paid tribute, also, to the performances of the state and BBL teams from the west in scooping trophies despite adverse circumstances in spending two years without getting to play at home.

Henderson, a former chair of WA Cricket, understands the fault lines existing across so many areas of Australian sport and life in 2022. But he also sees how cricket can still find connections between many of these silos, largely by making good decisions in cricketing, commercial and social terms.

Another administrator once asked a prominent business figure about how to get certain cricket opinion makers “on side” in future. Came the succinct reply, “stop making stupid decisions!“

A Wednesday, 10.20am curtain-up to the Test match summer, drawing slim crowds to a stadium constructed primarily for the AFL, was a shaky start in that direction. But as Cummins showed by seeing off Brathwaite to set up Australia’s day, performance is at least half the battle.

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