Australia captain Pat Cummins has opened up about the recent death of his mother Maria in an interview with Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand.
Maria passed away in March after a battle with breast cancer and Cummins admitted it was "still pretty raw at the moment" as he spoke openly about her passing with Ferdinand, whose mother Janice St Fort and first wife Rebecca Ellison also died after battles with cancer.
"I found talking to people and talking openly in public forums and public spaces [were] really cathartic for myself, it really helped me," Ferdinand said before asking Cummins how he was doing. "It is still pretty raw at the moment but the last few months I have been lucky enough to spend loads of time with Mum and us kids and Dad and just sharing all those memories," the fast bowler replied.
"I think it really hits home the kind of person you want to be, the kind of father you want to be. From that side it's been quite good, lots of memories, but in terms of the grief, I guess you keep working through that.
"So many people have similar stories, and I think I know them telling me about how they've kind of dealt with it and gone through it certainly helped me kind of rationalise it. So if I can help some other people down the track by speaking about it, potentially I will."
Cummins and Ferdinand are both ambassadors for WeAre8 and were speaking on Ferdinand's 'Get Real with Rio' interview series. As part of the interview, Cummins was asked to bring something sentimental to the interview and chose his son Albie's favourite children's book, sharing an emotional story about his mother as he discussed its significance.
"I'm not a very sentimental person so I had to think what in the house was important to me," he said. "I brought a kids' book. My son Albie is 18 months old. It's his favourite kids' book. It's called Birds, and it's from England, so hopefully you'll recognise a few.
"He absolutely loves this book. He grabs it from the bookshelf. Just before Mum passed away, this is the book Mum read to him the last time Albie saw her, so it's really special for me. My wife [Beckie] bought it so there's a huge connection that brings us all together."
Cummins left Australia's Test tour of India midway through the series to be with his mother and has not played cricket since February, having decided to skip the IPL and withdraw from his $1.3m (around £700,000) contract with Kolkata Knight Riders. And Cummins has opened up about feeling "burned out", while also declaring his plans to continue playing until he is at least 35.
"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," he said. "This is about four or five years ago [when] I kind of just came back from injuries. And I was just spent, like burned out.
"I just remember thinking: Jeez, I am 25, if I am going to do this until I am 35 I've got to find a way to balance all these different things. So I stepped away, spending time with family and friends, going to the farm, getting a coffee by the beach. I did a university degree, those things I find give me energy. So when I go and play cricket I can switch on a bit more."
