Cummins rules himself out Indian Premier League to become fit for West Indies tour

Adelaide, Jan 22(ANI): Australian rookie Patrick Cummins has ruled himself out of the 2012 Indian Premier League to recover from a persistent stress-related heel injury, ahead of the West Indies tour in March.

"The West Indies is a massive tour for us and obviously I want to make that my No.1 goal," Cummins said.

Australia's team performance manager Pat Howard has brought together fitness and medical experts to devise a three-year plan to enable Cummins fulfill his aim.

"We can't expect Pat to play all the time. It's about getting Pat from the age he is now to the age of James Pattinson. These guys are very, very young. We expect some injuries over time, but we're going to try to minimise them to the best of our ability by managing the workload," The Herald Sun quoted Howard, as saying.

"That's all your training and all your playing. As all the old fast bowlers say, these guys need to bowl so they keep building and building and building. They're absolutely right, but it's how much they bowl," he added.

Cummins, who had claimed a match-winning 6-79 against South Africa in Johannesburg, expects to make a comeback at some stage during the one-day series against India and Sri Lanka in February. (ANI)