Australian captain Pat Cummins was first accused of being “too woke” in October 2022. It centred largely on his public comments about Cricket Australia’s fossil fuel sponsorships, when he pulled out of promotional ads for main sponsor Alinta Energy because of its carbon footprint. A fractious group of disgruntled ex-players quickly picked up on this and transposed it onto his leadership and team. At the time, Australia ranked number one and had come off an incredible 12 months of results.
November 29, 2022, in Perth, he then responded to ex-coach Justin Langer’s derogatory comments by saying there are no cowards in the Australian cricket team, ever. Period. (There is video footage.)
I’ve never fully understood the term “woke.” I thought it meant you were a socialist, too performative about political correctness, enforcing cultural changes—equality, language policing, wealth redistribution. In the sporting sphere, it becomes murkier. Maybe there isn’t a true definition. It’s become an elastic word—meaning it can be attributed to a national cricket team and its leadership without question. And used internally the same way.
Sport has always reflected society, often ahead of it and sometimes behind. But sport also has some fairly fundamental principles that elude society and politics. Fairness, equal competition, merit, and a level playing field. None are too fashionable—more the foundations of sport itself.
Difficulty arises when those principles seem to conflict. The same applies to teams—in this case, Australia. What does our style of play look like? Who decides who should play, or not? How can you defend a skill group that continually fails—and do it with such blind self-assurance? The answer? “We’re gonna be OK.”
On the style of play. It’s been plain to see for some time that Australia have become less and less watchable in Test cricket—you could argue the same across all formats. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps the sameness of the rhetoric that surrounds them. Or a national selector who abandons his mandate to dress and sit alongside his players, as if he were one of them. A team split by age. Their best player becoming increasingly distant and self-absorbed. I’m not sure—it is a hard watch, though.
And circling back to the “coward” comments.
Australia chose to protect Cameron Green, batting four, from South African off-spinner Simon Harmer during day five of the third Test in Cape Town. Why? Because Harmer was bowling into the same Mitchell Starc footmarks that their spinner, Nathan Lyon, has been doing for the last 10 years.
From the 16th to the 39th over, they actively tried to keep Green from facing Harmer by rotating strike and letting lower-order batters—Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon—face the majority of the spin. Harmer bowls off-spin. Green made 65 from 110 balls in Australia’s first innings. Go figure.
Cowardice is an ugly word, and not one for here. Maybe the thinking was more “woke” than the alternative.
The post-mortems will be lengthy and hopefully worthwhile.
Nick
