We thought Tim was the right type of person for captaincy, says chief selector Trevor Hohns
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It’s been almost a year and a half since the infamous “Sandpaper Gate” back in South Africa and Australia’s chief selector Trevor Hohns has finally opened up on how Tim Paine was selected to lead the national team. Hohns stated that Paine was the right person to lead the side in the time of turmoil.
It was a dark day for cricket, 24th March 2018, when Cameron Bancroft was caught red-handed while attempting to tamper the ball. This lead to a series of repercussions for him along with Steve Smith and David Warner as the both of them were involved in devising the plan. This left Australian team without a leader for the last Test match of the series, which they lost 1-3 to the Proteas, and paved the way for Tim Paine to assume leadership. Now finally Hohns has revealed what transpired in the dressing room.
“Within about five minutes, we have made up our mind, and what led us to Tim was simply (because) we thought was the right type of person - he was touted as a leader previously. We went through the other candidates that could possibly do it and immediately just came up with Tim,” ESPNCricinfo reported Hohns as saying.
“We went back to the dressing room and it was announced that the boys, Warner and Smith, would be standing down; and all I said was, “Tim, sorry mate, no notice, but you are the captain.”
Having served their penalties, the trio returned to action this summer in England taking the field to earn the precious Ashes urn for their team. While both Warner and Bancroft had a nightmare of a series at the top of the Aussie batting line up, Smith picked up from where he left scoring a whopping 774 runs in the series to earn the Man of the Series award. He also broke the record of most runs in a series of this century although he missed a match in the series due to concussion.
Hohns informed that the selectors are now taking into account players’ personality and history while selecting them to avoid any ugly situation on the field in future. This clearly shows how seriously the Sandpaper Gate has affected Australian cricket and how desperate they are to make up for it.
“We are taking serious account of people’s personalities and their past history, whether there’s been any misdemeanours...You do not really know sometimes, but you do by being around them a fair bit, you get to know their personalities etc., - you hear a lot of things,” the chief selector said.
“That is now coming into our selection process. But we will always go for the best players. There is no doubting that, and if anyone has an issue, then it’s up to us and the team management to make them understand what the expectations are,” added Hohns before bowing out.
