(Reuters) – Former quick bowler Geoff Lawson has hailed Pat Cummins’ appointment as Australia’s captain after the 28-year-old was named Tim Paine’s alternative.
Cummins is Australia’s forty seventh captain and the primary quick bowler to guide the staff in 65 years, prompting Lawson to have a good time the New South Welshman’s promotion to the highest job forward of the upcoming Ashes collection in opposition to England.
“The stranglehold has been damaged, the envelope pushed and the tempo ceiling smashed,” Lawson, who performed 46 exams for Australia, wrote in his column within the Sydney Morning Herald.
“A cricketer, whose foremost talent…is to bowl quick, has been granted the workplace of nationwide captain.
“Cricket realists everywhere in the continent are sighing with aid after turning blue from holding their breath since…Tim Paine resigned.”
Ray Lindwall was the final quick bowler to captain Australia when he led the nation in a single take a look at in opposition to India in Mumbai in 1956.
Whereas quick bowlers have not often been given the captaincy previously, Lawson believes holding the publish will encourage Cummins to lift his sport to new ranges in a way much like former captain Richie Benaud.
“Benaud’s private performances had been inspirational with bat and ball,” he wrote of the all-rounder. “Captaincy made him a greater participant by way of the strain to guide by instance. Cummins can do the identical.”
Cummins was promoted from the function of vice-captain after Paine stood down following a “sexting” scandal. Paine has since introduced he’ll take “a psychological well being break” from all types of the sport.
Cummins’ appointment comes two weeks earlier than Australia tackle England within the first Ashes take a look at in Brisbane, which begins on Dec. 8.
“A quick bowler captain…has arrived at lengthy, lengthy final and what a collection to be blooded in,” wrote Lawson.
“Quickies everywhere in the nation are standing taller as we speak, their standing modified without end.”
(Reporting by Michael Church, Modifying by Sam Holmes)
