Howard is looking for an explanation into why the injury was not reported
Cricket Australia team performance manager Pat Howard has expressed his frustration towards the Sydney Sixers at being kept in the dark about Pat Cummins’ back issues during the recently concluded Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20).
Cummins carried on playing with his back injury after Australia’s physiotherapist Alex Kountouris noted that it did not look to be anything serious.
However, Cummins will now be missing out on an entire years’ worth of cricket after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back and is scheduled to have his bowling action reassessed as a result of it.
Howard is now set to meet with the Sixers’ general manager Stuart Clark about the failure to report the injury.
Speaking exclusively to ESPNcricinfo, Howard said: “We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t have the information as quickly as we should’ve, but for the opportunity to sit down with Sixers management on that, there’s a fair few other things going on. We know Pat’s out, and we have to deal with that, that’s life and you keep moving on. But we were disappointed with how that transpired.”
Former Australia pace bowler Brett Lee has agreed to help examine Cummins’ bowling action and tweak it in areas which can help the 19-year-old avoid sustaining any more injuries in the future.
Lee noted that he would be glad to give some advice to Cummins in regards to bowling well, while also ensuring that no damage is being done to the back.
Speaking exclusively to the Sun-Herald, Lee said: “I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that Pat needs to change his action, but there are some things I reckon I could help him with [such as how] to clean his action up to make it a little bit easier on his back. The one thing you don’t want as a fast bowler is hyper-extension and counter-rotation [like] he has [and] as I did when I was at the same age … I had that same set-up where there was a lot of twisting and turning in my action, which is where you get your pace from, but it does come at a cost.”
Cummins has only played one Test in his international career, which came against South Africa at the Wanderers last November, where he picked up the Man of the Match award for his seven wickets.
Lee stated that Cummins being ruled out of action for the next year was a big disappointment for both the national team and the fans since he had the ability to produce absolute corkers on the Australian pitches.
“This is a real blow. He’s a great fellow and I just want to see him out on the field and playing, I’m shattered for Pat because someone like him bowling 155kph to 160kph at the Gabba would be exciting to see. It would be great to see him match what the South Africans have. It’s disappointing and frustrating to think we haven’t got that now, though it’s not the poor bugger’s fault. I’m 100% confident he’ll be back, but I would’ve loved to have seen him bowl to Jacques Kallis who, in my opinion, is the world’s best cricketer,” Lee added.