It was at Cummins’ junior ground Howell Oval in Penrith back in 2022 that he first launched his Cricket for Climate initiative with Panthers NRL captain Nathan Cleary standing alongside him.

Now three years’ on, Cummins celebrated the fruition of his dream to help fund the future-proofing of community sporting clubs against the impacts of climate on the same patch of turf, before joining Cleary across the road to be a fly on the wall for the Panthers’ bid to propel themselves to a fifth straight NRL premiership.

Federal Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen praised Cummins’ as the impetus behind the Government’s investment in the Sport Forever initiative that aims to save sporting clubs thousands of dollars every year on energy costs while trying to provide solutions to the effects of climate on kids playing sport at the same time.

Test captain Pat Cummins secures $50m climate funding before Panthers leadership visit