Turkey roast and strolls at MCG: Of Australian team and its warm tradition of family get-togethers

Pat Cummins with wife Becky and daughter (Pic: Pat Cummins/Instagram)

Families do keep elite sportsmen grounded in every sense of the world.

Twenty four hours prior to the start of a high-octane Boxing Day Test, the gargantuan MCG resembled an annual function of a nursery school, with families of Australian cricketers joining them for a customary stroll of the G and savour the traditional Turkey roast.

There was Pat Cummins' wife Becky and Mitch Marsh's better half Greta, and they were seen enjoying some light moments along with their children.

Steve Smith had his father Peter for company while Andrew McDonald's teenager son Ollie was seen taking throwdowns at an adjacent net alongside Travis Head.

Sam Konstas' family has flown in from Sydney to see him wear the Baggy Green for the first time on Thursday.

The kids ran around with their fathers, who didn't want to miss even a second of this precious family time, which is a rarity for international cricketers mostly living out of their suitcases.

"It's great. We spend probably more time on the road than we do at home. So this is kind of a big extended family and at the moment it's chaos. It feels like there's, I don't know, on average probably two kids per person.

"So there's about 30 or 40 kids running around between the staff and the players. It's great fun," Cummins looked very chilled when asked how special the gathering is.

Cummins said that before his big day, teenager Konstas was being made to feel at home, making him a part of all the fun, frolic and festivities on Christmas.

"Yeah he's great, just quite relaxed, good fun, happy to take the, you know, roll along with the jokes and take the mickey out of himself and others. We just always encourage him to be himself.

"He seems relatively like he's got a good head on his shoulders for a 19-year-old, so we're there backing him up. That's a growing cricket family, just give us an insight on how special it is to have everyone together today," Cummins said.

Talking about a big extended family, Cummins said how all the wives and partners got along nicely to create a very happy environment.

"All the partners get on so well. This year we haven't had as many partners travelling (for matches) because everyone has got young ones at home. But they all come together for the Melbourne and Sydney Test.

"It's always a great time of year, so we'll go off to Christmas lunch after this and all the kids have got presents this morning and running around and hyper, so it's absolute chaos but it's awesome," he concluded.

(With PTI inputs)