Paine, who played 35 Tests for Australia and captained them in 23 of those games, retired from all forms of cricket at the end of the previous domestic season. Since then, he’s jumped into coaching stints, as a part-time coach of the Australia U19 side and the Australia A team that plays New Zealand A in a series commencing next week.
“I just got the opportunity to do it to be honest. I thought long and hard about it, for me like a lot of people, I’ve been at Cricket Tasmania since I was 12 years old, I’m now 38, so you do the math. It’s a long time to be in one place,” said Paine on SEN Tassie show.
Apart from playing all his domestic cricket for Tasmania, including 150 first-class appearances, Paine played for the Hobart Hurricanes 44 times in the BBL, captaining them 25 times and scoring more than 1100 runs highlighted by 140 boundaries and a high-score of 91.
The former wicketkeeper-batter added his decision to work with the Strikers came about due to a desire to work with new voices in a new environment. “Who knows down the track? I might end up back here (Tasmania).”
“But I think in terms of developing myself as a coach, getting out of my comfort zone and learning new things is only going to make me better in the long run. Once I worked that through, I jumped at it.”
“I’ve spoken openly that I’m now really keen to become a coach at some stage, a head coach. I think a good path forward for me is to get out of my comfort zone, go somewhere completely new, a new system, new coaches and find out how other people go about it.”
Paine will work in aiding the Strikers in both the fielding and batting departments under the tutelage of head coach, former Australia fast-bowler Jason Gillespie.
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