JUSTIN LANGER: Tim Paine’s Adelaide Strikers Big Bash League coach gig is well deserved

In the heart of the football season, and with the Olympics coming to an end, Tim Paine’s appointment as the head coach of the Adelaide Strikers BBL cricket team went largely unnoticed.

Thankfully, I was in Darwin last week promoting the Top End T20 series on the morning Tim was told of his elevation as a first-time head coach and, with him also being in town for the tournament, we were able to go over old times.

Having gone through a stringent process and rising above several more experienced and qualified coaches, I can understand why South Australian cricket was enamoured by the former Australian captain. I was also absolutely delighted for my friend and colleague.

Tim is one of the best people I have met in cricket.

His professionalism was elite, his curiosity for improvement infectious, and his sense of humour always warmly received. These, along with his talent as an outstanding wicketkeeper, make him the leader that he is.

When I was appointed head coach of the Australian cricket team, Australian cricket was reeling from the ball-tampering scandal. Tim and I were tasked with restoring team culture and earning back the respect of our home supporters and our critics around the world.

One of the first steps in our journey was to visit the United States with then CEO James Sutherland, high performance manager Pat Howard and performance specialist Darren Holder. The five of us visited various sporting organisations to formulate our plan for achieving our goals.

After a day at The Dallas Cowboys, the world’s most expensive sports franchise, recently valued at more than $10 billion, we sat at an old, rusty, round metal table drinking average coffee and debriefing the day’s events.

It was there and then that we decided our most important mission in the short term was to rebuild faith in the Australian cricket team. It was at the table that we came up with the motto of “Make Australians Proud” — words we used nearly every day through our tenure leading the team.

Words aside, that early period taught me a great lesson: Leaders on the same page and moving in the same direction are a powerful fuel for success.

It also reminded me of the importance of partnerships and working together as a team.

In Tim, I was incredibly lucky to have a partner who was as determined as any of us to restore the faith in an entity JUwe had lived our lives being proud of.

Painey provided much-needed stability and composure during that initial crisis to help the team rebuild its reputation and performance.

His calm demeanour and reliability were crucial in guiding the squad through this tumultuous period.

His appointment symbolised a thirst for a new era in Australian cricket — one focused on humility, respect, professionalism, mateship and a return to playing the game in the right spirit.

His leadership style was calm, composed and unassuming.

He brought a sense of stability to a team reeling from scandal and public disillusionment. He became a statesman in his every action.

Tim’s tactical acumen and in-game management were also very sound. His intelligent decision-making and ability to steer the team through the ups and downs demonstrated his strong cricketing nous.

His first major test came in the 2019 Ashes series in England. Having not won a series on English soil since 2001, the challenge was immense.

Yet, under Paine’s leadership, the team retained the Ashes, drawing the series 2-2, a feat celebrated back home as a significant achievement and a step forward in winning back the public’s support.

At the time the skipper said: “Winning the Ashes in England is something we’ve been trying to do for 20 years, so to come away from here with a series win, or having retained the Ashes, is something we’re really proud of.”

His understated demeanour, masking the weight of what had been accomplished, was Paine at his best.

My favourite memory of that series was how our captain kept the team together after the famous loss at Headingley, now known as the Ben Stokes miracle. Never have I seen a more humiliated changing room, yet Tim’s optimism and resolve were instrumental in turning around the deflation of such a tough defeat.

That example, and the trait of rising through adversity, is Paine’s most admirable attribute.

There is a saying that I often call upon when I look at a person’s character. It says: “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you have been buried when actually you have been planted”.

The strongest characters I know are those who are able to bounce back from adversity, own the situation and come back as an improved version of themselves.

In Paine’s case, he has consistently proven this.

Early in his career, and as the cricketing Gods often decree, Paine’s dream of a long international career was cruelly hampered by a series of finger injuries. He underwent multiple surgeries, each one more painful than the last, both physically and mentally.

By 2017, Paine was not even Tasmania’s first-choice wicketkeeper. He found himself playing club cricket, contemplating a life beyond the game. “I was pretty close to calling it quits,” I have heard him say many times as the passion that had driven him to the top had been worn thin by years of struggle.

Enter the cricket Gods again.

On the verge of retiring, astute Australian selectors Trevor Hohns, Greg Chappell, and Mark Waugh selected him from nowhere. Their faith was vindicated as he was living up to his promise as one of our best-ever wicketkeepers.

Playing well, and on the back of the sandpaper scandal, he was thrust into the role of Australian captain, one of the most scrutinised positions in world sport. A role for which he excelled and for which I am personally very grateful.

Sadly, in November 2021, just weeks before the start of the Ashes series at home, Paine stepped down as captain after it was revealed that he had been involved in a personal incident four years earlier.

Although Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania had investigated the misdemeanour at the time, with both organisations clearing him of any breach of conduct, Tim did what great leaders do and fell on his sword.

Knowing his team’s motto was “Making Australians Proud,” he hadn’t lived this motto in a past life and felt it was in everyone’s best interests to step away. The incident, which became headline news, seemed so out of character I was as shocked as anyone.

His downfall was a stark reminder of public life’s fragility and the spotlight’s unforgiving nature, where even the most unlikely heroes can fall.

It is also a reminder that everyone makes mistakes, but what you do with your mistakes really matters.

When I met up with Paine last week, my admiration continued to grow. His humility and acceptance of his past mistakes were refreshing. He has worked tirelessly on building his beautiful family, and he has been as professional in developing his coaching career as he was as a player.

Before Shane Warne passed away, he said of Tim Paine: “He has a lot of wisdom and experience to offer, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him involved in the game in some capacity down the road. He’s a man of great character and integrity, and I believe he still has a lot to contribute to the sport he loves.”

Last week’s announcement that he has evolved from assistant coaching to a head coach’s role proves Warney’s prediction. It also reinforces my belief that the strongest characters fight through adversity and return better than ever.

Paine, the man who helped Australian cricket through its darkest chapter, deserves another go, and I believe he will be brilliant in this next career.