Passing the Cummins test

Pat Cummins has won the World Test Championship (2021-2023), 2023 ICC ODI World Cup, the Border Gavaskar Trophy (2025) and retained the Ashes (2023). In the past two years, the Australian captain has tormented the Indian fans so much that they have almost started admiring him.

His fans like to think that he is the man, the main driving force to push the Indian Test stars back into the Ranji Trophy exile for self-appraisals. But to get a sneak peek into the life of the 2023 ICC Cricketer of the Year and IPL’s hot property, the readers will have to wait longer. There is none of it in this book for cricket lovers — that’s for another day.

‘Tested’, the 280-page book, compiled in association with author Ben Mckelvey, has 11 chapters of conversations with personalities ranging from sports, politics, business and life in general. The 31-year-old Cummins tries to capture their testing moments and leadership journeys and sums up his learnings. Hence the title.

Cummins makes it clear in the Introduction that he did not want to focus on himself, with a hint that he might be saving it all for a memoir. During his conversations with personalities oozing hard-earned wisdom, what is unmistakable is their resolve, passion and inspiration, qualities that are hard to describe but easy to recognise. “I am always interested in where they first acquired theirs,” the iconic cricketer explains his purpose early in the book. It is a universal trait in all the successful sportspersons.

Coming from an Australian point of view, there is a fair bit of sprinkling of psychological theories such as Lateral Thinking, Flow State, Ten Thousand Hours Rule, and Loss Aversion. There are quotable quotes too.

Cummins’ interviews with John Moriarty, the first Aboriginal soccer player to represent Australia, the legendary Dennis Lillee and Australian pathologist Richard Scolyer make for an interesting read. They are elaborate, expressive and personal.

Moriarty, a child of the Stolen Generation, who was taken away from his school at the age of five (1943), recounts the moments when he met his mother after a decade. “She walked straight across the road and came over to me, and said, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘I am from Borroloola.’ She said, ‘What’s your name?’ I said, ‘John Moriarty.’ She said, ‘I am your mother.’ [My mum and I] just sat down, you know, in the gutter there and chatted.” The 15-year-old wanted to know why his mum hadn’t come and found him earlier. She explained that the law had not allowed it as no Indigenous person could cross state lines without the express permission of the Chief Protector of Aborigines.

The conversation with Pat’s coach Dennis Lillee explores his conviction that an athlete must be remunerated in proportion to the revenue he generates for the game.

As an answer to his probing, the iconic Australian captain picks out one attribute from each personality and co-relates it with others. Cummins says one truth always comes through: resolve emerges from experience. He developed it during his 10 years as an international cricketer. Cummins' mother, who passed away in 2023, had a different point of view. She used to say he always had the ‘drive’. It’s difficult to disagree.