Cummins goes above and beyond, but questions remain

Whether Pat Cummins' 68-minute press conference in Sydney on Friday will allow them to turn a corner remains to be seen. Right now that feels unlikely, given what David Warner has already said in response to Cummins, and Khawaja's next move is awaited. But whatever holes you want to pick in Cummins' performance and what he said, it's hard to think the captain could have done much more.

It was a scene rarely seen in cricket, comparable to when the ball-tampering controversy occurred on the tour of South Africa in 2018. Even the reporters who are used to the more controversy-ridden world of the NRL (National Rugby League) were taken aback by the attendance, though perhaps it was unsurprising given Cummins' open invitation on social media on Thursday.

The indoor school at Cricket Central, the new home of New South Wales cricket, had been largely cleared with a lectern positioned from where Cummins would address the nation. A small number of fans drifted in to watch the Sheffield Shield match against South Australia, some with quizzical looks as to what was going on but plenty taking a glance at the nation's most prominent cricketer being grilled.

Critiquing some of Cummins' answers is one thing, and certainly not without validity because it does mean what Khawaja has said about ball-tampering is not true or has been distorted, but you can't say Cummins wasn't a man of his word. He was faultlessly polite and respectful to those congregated, doing his best to make sure anyone waiting to ask a question got their chance. Still, it wasn't quite the rapid-fire bombardment Mitchell Marsh faced the previous day in Perth.

Cummins addressed the wider culture of the team, in that win-at-all-costs era ("arrogance" and "ugliness"); the seriousness of Khawaja's claim around race being a factor in the decision on who would be captain; some minutiae and detail around achieving and maintaining reverse swing; that he had once seen a bottle top used to tamper with the ball in the Sheffield Shield; that the punishments for the Cape Town three were "heavy-handed," and plenty more.

Pressed on the vast discrepancy between what Khawaja wrote about everyone knowing and what Cummins and the bowlers have maintained over the years about not knowing, he said: "Well, that's my story. So I think he [Khawaja] is wrong.

"Some of these things are probably true. They're his accounts of what happened. But I think there's a few big leaps here where he's being vague, and I think the details really matter in that difference."

"This really affects Australian cricket. And I think he's dealt with, you know, the way that he's presented his story. I think he's done that in a very casual manner. And it affects a lot of people."

Cummins said he had no recollection of Khawaja giving a speech in Cape Town calling for collective responsibility, adding that he had also checked with other members of the team. He also had "no idea" whom the two players were who Khawaja alleges put a stop to that idea.

Khawaja's recollection about the ball being tampered with sandpaper near the boundary rope during the previous Test in Port Elizabeth was, Cummins said, "a revelation to us" and questioned whether the umpires did drop the ball near the rope for the bowling side to bring in after a break. Cummins said that is no longer the case.

When the hour-mark was reached, the Cricket Australia (CA) media manager stepped in to call "drinks". Cummins, who was also at Cricket Central to train, said, "I need to bowl" but that he'll "answer every question, because this will just keep popping up if not. So, please, any nuanced question about cricket, change rooms, ball maintenance, sandpaper, whatever, I'm here to answer it today. Then I'm done."

Even when the end was reached soon after, he asked: "Anymore?" before finally leaving the lectern.

The significance of the deep rupture that has emerged was rammed home when, about 25 minutes in, Cummins was asked whether he would consider legal action against any of Khawaja's claims. He said he had been advised that some things that had been said "are probably defamatory" but added: "I won't be doing that. You've got to move on. It's been eight years."

Will the game be moving on? Over in Perth, where he was working on the broadcast of the ODI between Australia and England, Warner accused Cummins of throwing Khawaja under the bus. And now the wait to see whether Khawaja responds to the comments of his most recent Australia captain. He has cancelled some media appearances in recent days, since his tense interview on ABC's 7.30 Report, but the book tour continues.

It was clear how this had been consuming Cummins in recent days. "The first few days, I was quite relaxed. The last couple of days, it's been a lot on, a lot said. I really care so much about Australian cricket. There's a bit of detail here to sift through."

There was some lightness when he discussed footage of an animated exchange between him and his wife Becky, caught by an Australian newspaper earlier in the week. He joked about taking the wrong bins out, but a serious point was made from it as well.

"Becky wears a heart on her sleeve," Cummins said. "It's all a bit ridiculous, isn't it? Like, we're here talking about something that was dealt with eight and a half years ago. Now I'm walking my one-year-old daughter in a nappy out the front, and I've got cameras chasing me and my family. Like, for me, that's a bit ridiculous. We weren't having a spat. Becky was very frustrated and animated and really not happy with Usman."

Later, Cummins expanded on the toll: "This is people's real lives. This is serious. Saw Becky on the news yesterday. This affects not only people, [but] people's families." That applies, Cummins stressed, to Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft as much as anyone. "I can't imagine what particularly those three went through and their families, so it's really difficult."

The questions Cummins appeared to find the toughest to answer were on his relationship with Khawaja, another window into the human side of this mess, beyond simply who is to be believed and whether any of this is worthwhile.

"It's something I've actually been grappling with the last couple of days," he said. "Usman's a friend, but I think the way he's kind of been quite casual and flippant with people's lives in Australian cricket, I don't think that's okay, and I don't think that's what friends do. So perhaps, again, that's what I'm kind of thinking through at the moment."

Now the question - as CA CEO Todd Greenberg hinted the other day and has been reinforced by Cummins' stance - whether it's ever possible to find the absolute truth (or one that is beyond reasonable doubt) when there are two such opposing versions of what took place. Today's events are unlikely to shut out the calls for another investigation.

Despite starting an hour before the match was set to resume, Cummins' press conference overlapped with play in the Sheffield Shield match - "not out," he said twice when he heard lbw shouts against his NSW side - where Sam Konstas would take his score to a career-best 173. A few hours later, on the other side of the country, 21-year-old Mahli Beardman tore England apart on his ODI debut with 6 for 24. The future of Australian cricket was very much on display, but the past continued to stalk the present.