Pat Cummins and Jeremy Clarkson trade farming and cricket tips ahead of ICC World Test Championship finals

What’s the difference between a hobby farm and a real farm?

“A (hobby farm) makes absolutely no money,” Pat Cummins said, with a laugh. “Costs money and makes no money!”

When Cummins isn’t stepping out onto the pitch as the captain of the Australian cricket team, he can be found on his hobby farm in NSW’s Southern Highlands. He told The Nightly it was a passion, not a profit venture, and “a happy place” for him and his family.

“We love that whenever life gets busy to just be able to go back there.

“My uncle had a farm growing up, so we’d go there twice a tear and there are so many memories as kids, kind of running around a farm. So, I always wanted that, and especially having kids, I was like, ‘Oh, that’d be awesome to have that for our kids’.

But just last week, Cummins had to sell the farm’s 10 cows. They had even named them.

“My wife cried. It was a long negotiation with my wife, but they were just getting so big, they were wrecking the fences and (it was) dangerous. We’re going to redo some of the fences over the next six months, we’re just going to have nothing on there for about a year.”

Cummins has a way to go before he’s a proper pastoralist, but he got a small taste of a working farm when he went to visit Jeremy Clarkson’s holdings in the Cotswolds, where the UK TV personality films his reality series, Clarkson’s Farm.

The confab was a promotional crossover between the show which is on Prime Video and Cummins’ role as an ambassador the streaming platform, and will feature in an episode in the upcoming fifth season.

Cummins threw some bowls as Clarkson’s co-star, Charlie Ireland, tried, mostly in vain, to bat the ball. Clarkson, an avowed non-cricket fan, stood on the sidelines while needling his mate.

Sadly, the encounter didn’t convert Clarkson to the sport.

“He strikes me as someone who’s going to be hard to change his mind on things,” Cummins said. “I don’t really like race cars, or I don’t mind it, but I don’t know anything about race car driving, So, we didn’t get too deep.

“Played a game of cricket, didn’t really get involved. But he asked a lot of questions about the (Indian Premier League), I think as a way in to try and sell these cricket bats into India.”

In a recent episode of Clarkson’s Farm, the team planted willow trees that will be harvested to craft the bats that are in high demand in India. But there’s a catch, the willows won’t be ready to harvest for 15 years.

Cummins is in the UK prepping for the Australian side’s clash with South Africa in the ICC World Test Championship finals at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Australia will be defending its title in the competition, which is streaming on Prime.

“It’s high pressure and we want to win,” he said. “We’ve had a great couple of years, we’ve the final, that’s a huge achievement. To win would obviously be amazing, but it’s a one-off test match, things can happen, and we feel really well placed.”

The competition is relatively new, having only launched in 2019 and each cycle runs over two years.

“The first time around, it felt very new. Once we saw New Zealand win it, and we just missed out, as a team, we thought, ‘No, no, that’s something we actually want to win and take seriously.

“You’re competing against every other test play nation, so it’s like a Mickey Mouse competition, you’re up against everyone, just like any other ICC event. It’s gaining momentum, it’s got quite a bit of relevance in world cricket.”

For Cummins, test cricket is still the epitome of the sport, so anything that boosts the format is right up his alley.

“No doubt the world is changing in terms of there’s just more cricket than there ever has been,” he said. “The challenge is trying to make sure test cricket stays right at the top of that because us players, we love it more than any other format, or I do.

“That’s kind of real cricket and we love it. I know they’re talking some ideas this week at the (Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord’s). Anything that keeps test cricket number one for me is all excellent.”

The reporter travelled to London as a guest of Prime Video