'Hardest time of my life': Australia skipper Pat Cummins on his mother's death last year

Australia skipper Pat Cummins has revealed that the passing away of his mother last year was the "hardest time" of his life. Pat Cummins' mother, Maria, had died of cancer last year. When Australia toured India in February last year for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Cummins had flown back home between the second and third Test to attend a family emergency. That family emergency was later known to be about his mother's health.

On 10 March, it was announced that Cummins' mother had passed away due to cancer, and as a result, Cummins eventually missed the ODI leg of the series.

"I knew when I was getting on that plane that I was going to have to come back in a couple of weeks pretty much," Cummins told on the Imperfects podcast.

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"Flying away... That's the hardest time of my life, easily. I probably felt it in the 12 months leading in. Any time I flew away I was like, 'Time's finite here, I'm making a deliberate choice to go and play somewhere rather than spend it at home'," he added.

Cummins revealed that he did not explain to his mother the reason why he returned home after playing two Tests in India.

"But that time in particular  because we knew roughly the timeline, and knowing Mum and Dad as well; how much joy they get, sitting together, watching me play  that gave me enough confidence to go and play, and they were desperate for me to go and play, and I knew I could hop on a flight at any time and come back.

"But for those couple of weeks I was in India, especially now I look back on it, my mind was not in India, it was back home the whole time," he said.

Cummins, who led Australia to World Test Championship and ODI World Cup titles last year, said that he only wanted to be with his mother at such an important time.

"I remember my manager and a couple of other people around me who I normally listen to were calling me and being like, 'I think we need to give a little bit of a reason why you've gone home', and I'm like, 'Nah, don't care', and he's like, 'Nah, you're getting a lot of heat here, you've got to explain yourself', and I was like, 'I honestly do not care what people think'," he said.

"After about six or seven days when I knew I wasn't going to come back to India, we said Mum's in palliative care. But I literally could not have cared less what people were saying about me," added the 30-year-old.