Australia's Pat Cummins celebrates with the trophy after winning the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Pat Cummins walked into the press conference room with Australia’s latest World Cup trophy and the biggest smile his face would allow.
As the green and gold of his jersey bounced off the crisp gold of the trophy, he knew not what to say when asked to express his feelings in the wake of what could well be called a coup.
“This is huge,” he said a few times over, shaking his head in disbelief just as many times. “To win this here in India and under these circumstances is just special, simply special. I am so proud of this team.
“Retaining the Ashes was great but this, this is the pinnacle of my international career. I cannot put into words how I am feeling right now so I won’t even try but, mate, this is big.”
But of course, the media wasn’t going to let him float away and not answer some of the more important questions such as Australia’s gamble of keeping Travis Head in the squad despite the opener’s fractured hand.
“A lot of credit has to go to (Andrew) McDonald and George (Bailey) for keeping Trav in the side,” he revealed. “I remember George coming up to me and telling me that he hadn’t slept all night because of the decision we had to make, but he ended up saying we have to keep Trav because he could be the trump card.
“That decision could have backfired but it didn’t and we have to thank Trav for that. He’s just a fine, fine cricketer.”
Besides Head, who ended up with a game-changing, perhaps even life-altering, 137, Cummins’s role in this victory cannot be underplayed.
Of course, he had done an exceptional job at keeping his wits about himself throughout the tournament when it looked like Australia were not making the knockouts, but even in the final, he was a picture of poise.
He had a plan and he translated that as coherently as he could to his team-mates and they delivered. That, Cummins says, is how championships are won, but to win it against these odds?
"I mean I always like to say I'm pretty relaxed but I was a little bit nervous this morning you know just pacing around waiting for it to get started just seeing the sea of blue in the hotel getting nearer the ground and seeing the sea of blue, walking, making its way to the ground, all the cars parked with their selfie cameras out, you kind of knew you were walking into something pretty special. And then to walk out for the toss and just see 130,000 blue Indian shirts, it’s an experience you'll never forget,” he said.
Then, very tastefully, he added: "Awesome day and the good thing was they weren't too noisy for most of it.”
Cheeky. Cummins had mentioned only the day before that it would satisfy him if his team could silence the crowds. Little did he know that they would do more than that.