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Cummins in charge – for now

Scott Bailey of AAP

Pat Cummins has no ambitions of being a career captain, revealing he does not see himself as Australia’s test leader until the day he retires.

Cummins’ appointment as Australia’s 47th men’s test captain yesterday ended a week-long search for a new skipper, thrown at selectors on the eve of the Ashes.

But there is every chance they could face a similar decision again in coming years, albeit in less dramatic circumstances.

At age 28, Cummins could play on for another eight years.

But he doesn’t see himself forming the same kind of long tenure that saw Allan Border and Steve Waugh lead dynasties of their own at the helm of the test team.

‘‘In a perfect world if my form and body could keep up I’d like to be playing into my mid 30s,’’ Cummins said. ‘‘I’d doubt that I’ll be captaining that long. It’s good to have some freshness every ’x’ amount of time.’’

Cummins’ approach is at odds with the traditional passage of Australia’s full-time captains, most of whom have retired in the job.

Only Steve Smith’s suspension and Ricky Ponting’s home Ashes loss in 2010-11 have seen Australia go away from that process in the past 35 years.

In the same amount of time Australia have had 47 test captains, England have had 81.

Cummins does however have stronger views on the off-field responsibilities of the captain.

Cricket Australia revealed last week they would run background checks on Paine’s possible successors, desperate to avoid a repeat of the past seven days.

Chairman Richard Freudenstein also claimed at the time that ‘‘the role of the Australian cricket captain must be held to the highest standards’’.

That prompted a strong rebuke from players’ union CEO Todd Greenberg, who warned it was dangerous to set such a level of expectation.

Cummins himself stressed expectations on players or captains could not be over the top.

‘‘We’re going to have players come into our side who are teenagers, who are just out of school, who are growing up,’’ he said. ‘‘They’ve got to be able to fail and know that they are allowed to grow from that.

‘‘We’ve got to manage our expectations of everyone a little bit more.’’

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2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

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