Sydney, May 10 (IANS) Australia’s Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins revealed that he is still trying to get the balance right between various things in his life after admitting that he had suffered from burnout on return to competitive cricket in 2017.
Cummins had left Australia’s tour of India midway in February to spend time with his dying mother, and hasn’t featured in competitive action since then. Cummins had made his Australia debut as a teenager in 2011, but was back in the national side only from 2017 due to injuries.
“Cricket’s basically 12 months of the year; there’s always a cricket game going on somewhere, and I played non-stop for a year or two,” Cummins said on former England footballer Rio Ferdinand on ‘WeAre8’s Get Real with Rio’ program.
“This is about four or five years ago, (when) I kind of just came back from injuries. And I was just spent, like burnout and I just remember thinking ‘geez I’m 25 here but I want to do this until I’m 35’ I’ve got to find a way to balance all these different things,” he added.
Cummins further said he was still processing the loss of his mother Maria, who died in March three weeks after he returned to Sydney from Australia’s tour of India. “It’s still pretty raw at the moment but the last few months been luckily enough to spend loads of time with mum.”
“But (also) us as kids, and (with) dad, and just sharing all those memories together. I think it hits home the kind of person you want to be, the kind of father you want to be. So from that side, it’s been quite good. Lots of memories. But in terms of the grief I guess we’ll keep working through that.”
Cummins also disclosed that he plans to remain actively involved with Cricket for Climate, a foundation he helped to establish, which works to reduce the sport’s carbon footprint. “We’d (Cricket for Climate) love to go overseas, India, England, there’s so much scope for making a change in those places.”
“I try to do my little bit to normalise the conversation and make a bit of difference to make his (son Albie) future a bit better. I’d love to sit back in 10-20 years and just show the huge impact we’ve made.”
Cummins will be next seen captaining Australia in the World Test Championship final against India happening at The Oval from June 7-11, followed by the Ashes starting from June 16 at Edgbaston.
–IANS
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