Cricket: Cummins next captain on the rank after Paine resignation
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[November 19, 2021]
SYDNEY (Reuters) - After losing their
last two test captains amid allegations of misconduct, Cricket
Australia will be certain to do their due diligence before
appointing the next man to take over the job.
Tim Paine's shock resignation on Friday over sexually explicit text
messages followed Steve Smith's departure from the team's leadership
in the wake of the controversial 2018 Newlands ball-tampering
scandal.
"The board has accepted Tim's resignation and will now work through
a process with the national selection panel of identifying and
appointing a new captain," CA said in a statement.
As vice-captain, 28-year-old fast bowler Pat Cummins would be the
obvious choice to replace Paine and his appointment would enable a
rapid transition with the start of the Ashes series against England
only three weeks away.
Although Cummins has an impeccable record and currently tops the
test bowling rankings, Australia, like most of cricket's leading
nations, has traditionally chosen its captains from the ranks of its
batters.
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Ray Lindwall's temporary one-test stint in India in 1956 makes him
the only specialist fast bowler to lead Australia in the longest
format of the game.
One candidate who can be ruled out unless Cricket Australia is
prepared to countermand its own decision is opening batsman David
Warner, who was handed a lifetime leadership ban for his part in the
Newlands scandal.
Smith, the third best test batsman in the world according to the ICC
rankings, is eligible, however, after serving a two-year leadership
ban for "sandpapergate".
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![](../images/111921pics/sports29.jpg)
Australia's Pat Cummins gestures. Action Images via Reuters/Carl
Recine
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In anticipation of Paine's widely-expected
retirement at the end of the Ashes series, a media campaign to
resurrect his three-year reign as skipper has been rumbling along
for a while now, and Smith has expressed his interest.
Cummins, though, said recently he was ready, willing and able to
step up to the top job and was not overly concerned about adding the
captaincy duties to the sometimes arduous workload of leading the
pace attack.
Former captain Steve Waugh said earlier this month that it was time
a bowler, specifically Cummins, was given the chance to lead the
test team, and middle-order batman Travis Head concurred on Friday.
"Obviously Pat's been well spoken about, named as vice-captain, it's
hard to go past him, or give him the opportunity," he told reporters
after Paine's resignation.
"He's someone who oozes leadership, not only in the way he presents
himself and speaks and the way he goes about things and the way he
trains, but also when he's on the field."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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