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Pat Cummins' incredibly classy gesture during Ashes celebrations

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read
Pat Cummins, pictured here after he stopped the champagne celebrations so Usman Khawaja could rejoin the party.
Pat Cummins stopped the champagne celebrations so Usman Khawaja could rejoin the party. Image: Getty

Pat Cummins has been hailed around the cricket world after a classy gesture for teammate Usman Khawaja during Australia's Ashes celebrations.

Australia got to celebrate with the Ashes urn after wrapping up the series 4-0 with a 146-run win over England in Hobart on Sunday night.

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The Aussies broke out the champagne as they celebrated on the stage with their trophy.

But Khawaja, who is Muslim, was forced to exit stage left when the champagne started being sprayed around.

Khawaja's religion prevents him from drinking alcohol, with Muslim athletes often forced to sit out celebrations involving champagne.

But Cummins showed his leadership on Sunday night when he ordered his players to stop spraying the alcohol so Khawaja could re-join the party.

Video has gone viral on social media showing the moment Cummins told teammates to put the champagne away before gesturing for Khawaja to come back.

Khawaja then jumped back onto the stage right next to his captain as the full team posed for photos.

Usman Khawaja, pictured here fleeing the stage when the Aussies started spraying champagne.
Usman Khawaja was forced to flee the stage when the Aussies started spraying champagne. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images)

Journalist Ben Everill tweeted: “Huge shout out for Cummins gesture 2 stop the champagne to get Khawaja back in celebrations!

"That’s an Aussie skipper right there. I’m sure the boys have had plenty since but he ensured inclusiveness.”

Fellow journalist Anand Datla wrote: "This is small, yet significant gesture. Leadership 101. And that should be enough to endear Khawaja to Cummins through the rest of his career.

"Awareness is key, particularly in these moments of head spinning success."

While cricket writer Andrew Wu added: "Says a lot about Pat Cummins that he had the presence of mind to tell teammates to delay the celebratory spraying of champagne so Usman Khawaja could be involved."

Pat Cummins leads Australia to Ashes triumph

Cummins was handed the captaincy on the eve of the series after Tim Paine stepped away from cricket when a sexting saga became public.

In a dream series debut as captain, Cummins finished as a 4-0 Ashes winner and topped the wicket tally with 21 despite missing one Test.

"That was probably my biggest worry in accepting the role as captain," Cummins said.

"I'm in the team as a bowler. I want to make sure that's protected and I'm able to perform as well as I'd like.

"I think with each game, I felt better at managing that."

Cummins said he leant on deputy and former skipper Steve Smith to set fields and said he was able to "switch off" as captain when bowling.

"I could really ... take off the captain's hat and just be a bowler for my overs," he said.

"Even little things around bowling changes, setting fields in between overs. As I felt like I got better at managing that as the series went on.

"That's a hugely pleasing thing. Again, it might be difficult in the heat for longer innings. But I feel like it's something I'm only going to get better at."

with AAP

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