That approach, vigorously defended by the likes of Matt Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk and head coach Andrew McDonald over the past week, is more likely to win global trophies, but not so robust on juicy early season pitches in Australia. In his book Tested, Cummins outlined the thinking behind it.
“If our hope was to perform well and not disappoint anyone, we could have gone on as we had before,” he wrote. “But if our ambition was to win the tournament, I thought we had to bring some risk and variance into our decision-making; something that would give us a better chance of winning the competition, but that might see us fail … which would leave us ripe for harsh scrutiny.”
Coldplay singer Chris Martin and his dad watch Australia take on Pakistan at the MCG.Credit: Fox Sports
Right now, the risk of Australia’s approach is to invite exactly the “harsh scrutiny” Cummins spoke about. A pair of vast defeats at the hands of Pakistan, without a single batter passing 50 all series, should be cause for genuine concern at Cricket Australia.
Both the national team’s leaders and the top brass of CA have put plenty of other things ahead of bilateral white-ball series. Tests and global trophies are No.1 for Cummins and company, while head office is all about leaving room at the height of summer and school holidays for the Big Bash League.
What is not so prioritised, creating the likelihood of mounting criticism, is the expectation of the Australian public for a winning team on home soil in all formats, and the extra dollars paid by Foxtel for exclusive rights to white-ball games.
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In both 2018 and 2023, it was Fox Cricket’s portion of the broadcast deal that accounted for any major uplift in the rights fees. Seven paid proportionally less in 2018 than Nine had done for exclusive rights for decades. In the most recent deal, Seven wrangled a significant discount out of CA after going to war with the governing body for nearly three years.
Foxtel’s money is thus more vital to CA each time, even as the paywall infuriates many members of the public who still expect all games in Australia to be free-to-air. But how much more money might Foxtel be willing to pay for white-ball games played at the margins of the season with under-strength teams in front of small crowds?
Next summer, the Ashes series is preceded by white-ball matches against India -– which did huge numbers for Foxtel and Kayo in 2020. As he did at the MCG against Pakistan, it is easier to imagine Chris Martin watching Cummins in that series than the other way around.
