Pat Cummins for Australian captain is on brand but he might also add substance | Geoff Lemon

Those running Cricket Australia have an exceptional candidate to replace Tim Paine rather than just the next in line

For a sporting body, the chance to play a card like Patrick Cummins is rare indeed. He has every attribute to be a success with media outlets and the sporting public: tall, good looking, sufficiently young without being too young, intelligent, well spoken, a winning smile, a hint of political progressivism without – you know – talking about it too much, a seriously good highlight reel, a winning CV, and a place in all formats that is never open to question. Unless some unlikely transgression is dug up from his past, he is the ultimate cleanskin at a time when Cricket Australia desperately needs one.

All of which means that he will surely be installed as Australia’s next Test captain once his obligatory milkshake duck check is complete. After the sandpaper farrago in 2018, some of the cricket world did manage to dredge up enough goodwill to see whether the Australian men’s players and the governance body responsible for them could remake their culture into a kinder, gentler polity. The public relations version of that image was maintained via new captain Tim Paine while he and CA put their preaching of “elite honesty” into practice by covering up an investigation into his off-field behaviour. Three years later, and a tearful resignation press conference ended Paine’s tenure just as one had begun it.

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