Change Of Pace

Find out how speedster Pat Cummins used unwanted downtime to bulletproof his body and sharpen his game

- Daniel Williams

THE MEETING POINT is the walkway above the swimming pool at Sydney’s Clovelly beach. Pat Cummins arrives bang on time, exuding bonhomie. His day up till now? He’s walked his new toy poodle – “He’s not a real fast bowler’s dog,” Cummins says, sheepishly – and later chatted with someone from the sporting goods corporation that’s designing a boot for him. So pretty quiet. Suddenly, however, danger looms.

The Men’s Health photographer has blithely positioned the pace ace near the edge of a cliff. The two metres of rock between Cummins’ heels and the precipice glistens with rain. Cummins is nonchalant. But should he take a step backwards absentmindedly . . . no, this is unbearable.

Granted, it might be a case of transference: just because I wouldn’t dare stand where he is doesn’t make the set-up inherently perilous. But Cummins’ track record for misadventure does nothing to reassure. From severing the top of his right-hand middle finger at the age of four – when one of his sister’s slammed the toilet door on it – to a spate of injuries that has threatened to smother his career, fighting back from physical breakdown has been the leitmotif of Cummins’ life.

On the eve of a four-Test series against India, starting on Dec. 6 in Adelaide, what you get from the 25-year-old world-beater is a lesson in perseverance, in refusing to succumb to self-pity. “You can do a lot of learning in those tough times,” says Cummins. “In some ways I’ve been able to restart my career as a more complete package.”

Perhaps the same opportunity is there for you?

RISE TO THE OCCASION