‘Not concerned about being liked’ by the opposition – Tim Paine - Cricket Age

Tim Paine, the Australia Test captain, has stressed that the purpose of his side’s remodelled approach was to earn the Australian public’s trust again, and that he wasn’t “concerned about being liked one bit”.

Since taking over as captain after the ball-tampering incident in March, Paine has overseen a series of changes in the way Australia go about things.

For instance, he has made it a practice to have handshakes with each member of the opposition team before a series.

But he came under criticism from former skipper Michael Clarke, who said the team wouldn’t win much by “worrying about being liked”.

Paine said that wasn’t the point at all. “No one has spoken about being liked, certainly by the opposition,” Paine told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve spoken about wanting to get the Australian public’s trust and make sure that clearly you want the Australian public and cricket fans to like or love the Australian Test team.

“Certainly there’s that aspect, but from an opposition perspective we’re not concerned about being liked one bit.”

That, however, doesn’t mean Australia won’t play “hard cricket” like they have always done, and the returns of the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins for the series against India will help them do that.

“We’re still going to play hard Australian cricket, as Michael put it, that’s not going to change,” said Paine. “Clearly, Johannesburg was a really strange circumstance and a difficult game to play in for everyone, but going into Dubai the guys competed as hard as they could and they’ll continue to, and we’ve got some more senior guys coming back now.

“With Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins, that’s only going to help guys grow with confidence around them. With guys like Travis Head and Marcus Harris, when you’ve got Hazlewood and Starc and Cummins running in, it’s a bit easier to play that confident, aggressive style of cricket that Australia want to play and our team certainly wants to play.”

‘Not concerned about being liked’ by the opposition – Tim Paine

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Vipin Darwade

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Vipin Darwade