Is a candidate for the Australian men’s coaching job on the horizon?

Pete Lalor on "Australia’s top job"

Artwork by Fisher Classics with thanks to Adam Collins

Admittedly it’s a distant horizon. There’s no vacancy yet and that’s good because the candidate is a few steps from ready and the incumbent is going ok. He may not be ready when Andrew McDonald steps down either, but he’s working his way up the cricket ladder and you never know.

Back in 2022, when word emerged that Rob Key was keen on taking the director of cricket job in England, he happened to be in Pakistan commentating on the Test series against Australia and we spent a fair bit of time together.

I found it hard to believe anyone would want to assume control of a side that was struggling so badly. Surely it could only bring you grief, and why anyone would want to be a director of cricket when a commentators’ job was a pretty cushy one?

The former players behind the microphone get to travel the world, stay in nice hotels, hang out with their mates, be around the cricket, play regular rounds of golf, and get paid well while being responsible for little more than the words that came out of their mouths. (Pakistan was possibly not the best gig for a commentator, they were locked in their hotels and only let out occasionally because the PCB was so paranoid about security while we hacks were free to explore).

Key was off air and hanging around when I asked him why he wanted to give up commentary for what could be a very unfulfilling and difficult task. He said he wanted a job where he could make a difference. He thought he could give back.

It was an impressive answer. England cricket was in a time of need and he answered its call. Can’t say I’d have been of the same mind, but maybe when you’ve been a cricketer in a national team you feel some responsibility or connection. Key is an impressive character. He is genuine, understated and intelligent.

Fast forward a few years and his relatively magnanimous decision has helped change the fortunes of England cricket. He made the right call and he made a lot of right calls since taking on the role. The satisfaction he must take must far outweigh any you get swanning about with microphone and a camera. He has given back. Made a difference.

A couple of coaching appointments caught the eye this week as we wait for the ice to melt and Test cricket to emerge from this elongated period of suspended animation.

Tim Paine has landed the top job at the Adelaide Strikers. It’s his first major coaching role after acting as support to Jason Gillespie in previous seasons. Darren Lehman is also understood to have had his hat in the ring but they chose the Tasmanian over the local boy.

Paine is choosing to go down that path rather than commentary even though those doors were open to him.

He’s an interesting man. He used to tell me he was looking forward to a modest life in retirement: a morning radio show in Hobart, a gig at the Hurricanes, maybe a chance to get involved with the new footy team in Tassie.

He got the radio gig these days on SEN and he is very good at it, but has moved to Noosa. (Lehmann’s up there as well.) He is doing a bit of coaching work with the Australian Under 19s and in the Darwin comp and he’s pursuing a number of business interests. Moving away from Tasmania will broaden him too, if he’d stayed in the Tassie bubble you could argue he was limiting himself.

It’s a great thing to have him in the system. He’s not ready yet, but he fancies himself down the track as a state coach. After that, who knows?

Franchise cricket has arguably had a bigger impact on coaching jobs than on the players themselves.

Back in 2018 I wrote a piece for The Australian pointing out that Ashton Agar was earning more that year than head coach Justin Langer. JL was on about $1m at the time. AFL coaches were getting 50% more for 50% less work. The major issue appeared to be that people like Ricky Ponting were picking up around $600,000 in the IPL. If you are getting that much for a few months seasonal work you are unlikely to give yourself an ulcer 12 months a year in a national set up. Simon Katich would assuredly make a great Australian coach, but he’s made a good living coaching in franchise cricket while commentating in the summer. There are many in that boat.

On reflection my focus was too narrow.

You do not have had to have been a legend of the game to be a good coach, but you do have to have the calling.

Andrew McDonald’s Test career was relatively brief, but he has proved to be very good in the role and is a reminder that sometimes we get a bit distracted by the shiny things. Ronnie was always a student of the game and was doing his coaching courses while playing state cricket. Paine is similar, he loves the game, loves the challenge of leadership and coaching, and he has been guided in his career by a range of very good cricket people: Enrico Di Venuto (father of Michael) Bennett King, Troy Cooley, Tim Nielsen, Tim Coyle, Langer and the like.

Paine spoke very highly of Lehmann’s impact on him when he came back into the Test set up. At the time he was nervous as all get out about his batting at the time and tried to hide in the first net session so nobody could see how bad he was going. He middled a few but got out as soon as he could.

“Walking back to the dressing rooms when the session was finished, Boof said, ‘I can’t understand how you haven’t been scoring runs,” he wrote in his autobiography, The Price Paid. “I’ve watched you, you’re an excellent batter, it has me fucked’.” Paine walked tall back to the dressing room thinking “Darren Lehman thinks I’m a good batter”. Later, when he got out pulling in the second Test he apologised to the coach, but Lehmann said “Don’t be sorry, next time put it 20 rows back.”

When another coach told him to put the pull away in Perth, Lehmann scoffed and siad it was the best place in the world to score from the short ball and he should go for it.

Paine is of the new school and understands that, particularly with a cobbled together team in the Big Bash that the coach’s role is essentially a man management role.

However, he also carries within a fair bit of the old ways.

One of the things that he really battled with while captain was that many of the players bristled at JL’s discipline Paine responded well to it. In the book (I’m mining it because I helped him write it) he tells the story of copping harsh treatment from Bennett King when he was just 17 and a new arrival at the academy. It was something of an awakening for him.

“In Tassie everybody had looked after me because I was always the smallest and the youngest and I’d got along with the older blokes, but Bennett was not falling for my boyish charm. He had higher expectations and he’d sought me out for some serious criticism. It was the first time I got whacked between the eyes with the complete honesty approach … I was quite intimidated by him, a bit scared to be honest.

“It was probably the first time I was treated like a man, when I did something wrong he really let me know. I have so much respect for him now, but I would have told you something different at the time. He was the first to hold me accountable. It was at the right time too because I reckon I could have become a bit lazy or a bit too much of a smart arse if I was let go. Bennett King demanded more from me …”

Paine also spent enough time with the next generation to understand that they’re not like him, or the men who guided him.

Could he coach Australia? It’s a long shot from here, but not the worst idea ever (in my opinion).

Interesting also to see that Aussie Morne Morkel has taken up the role as India’s fast bowling coach.

Who will ever forget that brutal spell he bowled to Michael Clarke in the third Test of the 2014 series against South Africa? That was up there with one of the more compelling spells you will ever see. Like Mikey Holding to Brian Close.

Holding was commentating in Cape Town the day Morkel brutalised Clarke and was a little unimpressed that the bowler seemed more intent on doing physical damage than getting Clarke out, but I’m sure he’d have to admit that there were times he bowled with a similar mindset.

Morne may not have got the wicket, but he bounced Clarke over and over and over again. The physio and doctor made repeated trips to minister to Clarke who was hit on the hand, the forearm, the shoulder, the head and a few other places.

You winced watching it.

It was a genuinely violent line and length the usually mild Morkel chose that day. The wind was howling so strong the bails were blowing off, he came around the wicket, he wound up to almost 150kmh and he bowled at Clarke’s ribs, exploiting the bounce his height allowed him to get from just back of a length. Ian Bishop said at the time “I don’t know if Clarke will get through this Morne barrage, but he will really appreciate its value if he does. Those are tough Test runs.”

Clarke thought he’d broken his finger which had been jammed against the bat. He hadn’t, but it was bloodied and the nail fell off. He was 92no at the end of the day’s play, but could not sleep because of the pain. Apparently he gave up trying at 5am and roused the medical staff. It always took a lot of physio to get the captain going _ his back was a mess from his early days.

He batted on and was 161no when the innings finished. Later scans showed he was batting with a broken shoulder.

Clarke’s bravery at the crease does not get the acknowledgment it deserves. That was among the most courageous innings you will ever see in physical terms, but he often showed enormous courage backing himself to be aggressive when the odds were against the batters.

Australia won that Test because Clarke and Ryan Harris both fought injury and elevated their performance to another level.

Things got ugly and Dale Steyn struggles to forgive Clarke for an exchange that happened on the last day even though the Australian apologised.

Morkel was the last man out, bowled second delivery for a duck as the curtains were set to draw across the fifth day.