Cricket: Cumming good

One of the few positives to come out of a difficult first two tests against Australia for the Black Caps was nearly lost to the game a few short years ago. Craig Cumming, 29, who has impressed with his unflappable nature against the world's best bowling attack, was facing an uncertain future at the turn of the century.

Then came a new province, a new coach and a new contract. "Without a doubt," Cumming said as to whether the changes prevented him leaving the game.

"If we hadn't got the structures changed and if the contracts hadn't come in four years ago, I wonder whether I'd be playing today. This is my 10th or 11th year in first-class cricket and I've got a wife and boy now. With what we used to be earning I wouldn't have been able to sustain it," Cumming said. "It's kept me in it."

Most players move to Canterbury to get noticed but Cumming did the opposite and fled south of the border.

"I'd been there for six or seven years and it got to a stage where my cricket was just meandering along. I was in and out of the side when the Black Caps would come back in and wasn't sure whether I would be playing the next game or what was going on. I got a little bit sick of that. I felt I was playing well, so went to Otago for opportunities and get under the guidance of Glenn [Turner, Otago coach]. I'd spent a lot of time at Canterbury and rarely been involved with a specialist batting coach."

Cumming was born and bred in Timaru so he wasn't moving too far from his roots.

"I'm still a Crusaders supporter," he proudly declares.

The doughty opener showed he has the technique but more importantly the temperament, to survive against the world's best bowlers. Like Andrew Jones and Mark Richardson - and almost certainly dozens more who haven't been able to stay in the game as long - he's playing his best cricket as he approaches his fourth decade.

"I'm 29 now and just starting to hit the peak of my form. I'm beginning to understand my game a bit more. I've got a few years left."

The similarities to Richardson don't end with late blooming. With Cumming displaying the same sort of fortitude at the crease and a similar scoring rate, Cumming has found a couple of people quick to compare them.

"I'd like to think I'm a bit quicker between the wickets but I wouldn't mind his record to be honest," Cumming joked. "A couple of the Aussies have called me Rigor because of the pace I've been batting. Hopefully it shows I've played the game enough, have learnt a lot and am capable of dealing with tough situations."

Like recent addition Hamish Marshall, Cumming has shown he is comfortable on the back foot, a rarity in New Zealand.

"Pulling and cutting have always been part of my game. You try to play to what's going on and how they bowl but I got a few out of the middle in doing it and it also got me out a couple of times so it's about doing it at the right time. I'm going to be working on that."

Cumming said the step up in class from State Championship was so vast as to render comparisons pointless.

"They've got three world-class pacemen, then [Shane] Warne. The lengths are different, the pace is different, the pitches are different. You can't compare it to first-class cricket. There isn't a dead moment in the game. Even if the pitch is flat they've got Warne and they've got the reverse [swing], so you've got to be at the top of your game for the whole day."

And you also have to contend with dodgy umpiring decisions, as Cumming found out yesterday when padding up to a Jason Gillespie delivery and being given out for five.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY