Paine “absolutely pumped” after being announced as Adelaide Strikers head coach

Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has landed his first head coaching role, replacing Jason Gillespie at the Adelaide Strikers.

Paine assisted under Gillespie during BBL|13 and steps into the head role after the former pace bowler took over the coaching of Pakistan’s men’s Test team.

Having only retired from cricket officially last season, Paine says that he’s absolutely pumped to receive such a role so early into his coaching career as the selection process helped crystalize his thoughts on coaching and the game as a whole.

“The process part of it was obviously pretty foreign to me being pretty fresh out of the game,” Paine told SEN’s The Captain’s Run.

“But that was sort of where it started, I was at the Strikers last year and I clearly have an interest in head coaching, and I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring. If nothing else, I would have gained some experience from going through the process and the process itself was great for me to crystalize my thoughts after playing for 25 years at First Class and Test level.

“Us players have always got lots of ideas about how we think a coach should get it done, but to be able to put it into how I want to present it and how I want to get it across to a playing group was a great exercise.

“Luckily enough, I've managed to get the role, and I'm absolutely pumped about it.”

Paine played 35 Tests and 35 ODIs for his country while he played First Class Cricket for Tasmania from 2005 to 2023.

During his playing days, the gloveman didn’t initially consider becoming a coach, but as his career went on and he moved into leadership roles, the thought of leading a side not as a player began to appeal to him.

Paine thinks that coaching in the BBL aligns well with his experience as an on-field captain and he expects to transition well from player to assistant to head coach.

“I don't think you think about it too much while you're right in the middle of playing, but I think towards the end I started to have a little bit of a think about it,” Paine said.

“Clearly what's changed in cricket when I started to now is the evolution of the T20 game.

“I think for someone like me who has a lot of captaincy and leadership experience, the Big Bash is a pretty good place to start your coaching career.

“It's more around the environment, the tactics and strategy. I find it aligns really closely with my role as Test captain.

“So, I feel like it'll be a bit easier to transition than being an absolute skills assistant coach or coaching a Shield program where it's 12 months of the year and there's a lot of actual cricket coaching.

“The Big Bash is more around man management and identity style of play and making sure you can get the best out of people … it aligns really well with captaincy.”

Paine also says he’s all-in on his new career path and couldn’t think of a better place to start as a head coach than the BBL.

“I don't think you get to coach a Big Bash team unless you're all in,” Paine said.

“I've said to plenty of people before everything I've ever tried to do, I’ve tried to be the best I can possibly be at it … and coaching is no different.

“I want to try to coach at the absolute highest levels and in the biggest competitions around the world.

“I'm really fortunate and lucky that I've got a great opportunity here to start in already one of the biggest and most hotly contested franchise competitions in the world.

“That opportunity is not lost on me, and I was really thankful to the South Australian Cricket Association for giving me the opportunity well.”

Paine has also previously worked with Australia A and Australia’s U/19s in coaching roles.

The Strikers will hope to improve on last campaign’s third-place finish when BBL|14 begins in December.