This is cringe worthy
Australian cricket selector Trevor Hohns launches vigorous defence of the under-fire Tim Paine
By Sam Worthington
Cricket Australia has launched a vigorous defence of Tim Paine's captaincy, claiming much of the criticism was "unfair" and "in poor taste."
CA's national teams boss Ben Oliver kicked things off
after the Test squad to tour South Africa was unveiled, before selector Trevor Hohns doubled down on a Zoom call with reporters.
"Tim's leadership in our mind was never in question," Hohns said in the wake of a home series humbling against India
which led to widespread debate over Paine's future.
"
We did not spend a minute on Tim's leadership during our selection meeting.
"He's been a terrific leader of this Australian team through some pretty trying circumstances, since he's been in the top position.
"So I think Tim is has been unfairly criticised in this instance.
"Sure, we're all disappointed with the performance of the team and losing to India out here, that's very difficult to accept sometimes, but I think the criticism of Tim Paine has been totally unfair."
Before the India series, the 36-year-old Paine had generally been viewed as doing an excellent job in the wake of the damaging Sandpapergate scandal.
But he blotted his copybook and was forced to apologise for swearing at an umpire and then abusing India's Ravichandran Ashwin during a tense Sydney Test.
Who succeeds Paine is a massive headscratcher for selectors, with Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Alex Carey all possibilities.
"With relation to Pat Cummins, yes he is the vice-captain and we don't have any doubt that in certain circumstances, Pat could certainly take over the reins if anything were to happen to Tim Paine in the short-term," Hohns said.
"We're always looking for leaders and trying, where and when the opportunity arises, to possible give somebody some experience.
"And over the last week or two there have been various names thrown up and let's face it, we've got to canvas all of those options and try to come up with a leader or a group of leaders – which is what we've tried to do over the last few years – to take Australian cricket forward."
Wade's dumping from the Test squad clears some air for Carey to cement himself as Paine's successor as wicketkeeper and potentially as captain too.
"Alex Carey's obviously been on our radar for some time," Hohns said.
"He's played limited overs cricket for us and we thought that was the ideal pathway for him to get to Test match level.
"Alex, over the last 18 months, has got better and better as a player so I think our thinking is reasonably clear there, without rubber stamping it, if I could put it that way."
https://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/au...-22f3-4898-956a-be981ffcdc98?ocid=Social-WWOS
