Pat Cummins may be good at ‘fighting Tories’ but he is no culture warrior

Pat Cummins’ Australia Day comments have set tongues wagging but he’s not the first cricket captain to dabble in social commentary. Photograph: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

A hoary cliche of news media concerns the captaincy of the Australian cricket team being the second most important office in the country after the prime ministership.

On one hand, it’s what one prime minister would have called “hyperbowl”; on the other, you can argue the comparison, at least in prestige terms, is back to front.