Paine’s helping hand firmly on the button
TIM Paine’s hope for Will Pucovski is that he’s as good a Test batsman as he is at FIFA.
Part of the bonding process between the veteran captain and the emerging youngster 14 years his junior, has been to engage in constant football battles on the PlayStation.
The Australian skipper is following the blueprint of previous successful captains including Michael Vaughan, who felt that you’ve got to know the man before you get to know the player.
Or at least that’s Paine’s excuse, because his good intentions aren’t being reflected on the scoreboard, where sources say he is schooled on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.
But the key to the relationship is it has extended well beyond virtual reality. When Pucovski was floored by a crushing short ball in the Australia A tour match against the Indians last month, Paine understood the magnitude of what hat that sobering moment meant more ore than anyone. Every minute Pucovoski spent in Dr John Orchard’s hard’s medical room that afternoon, Paine aine never left his side.
Given Pucovski’s complicated d history of having so often come to the cusp of a Test debut only to have to pull back at the last moment, Paine saw it as his duty to be personally invested in making the 22-year-old feel he didn’t need a baggy green to already feel part of the fold.
“That was probably how it started. I just wanted to try to make him comfortable and make him feel part of the group as much as I could and we struck up a pretty good friendship, even though there’s a fair age difference,” said Paine.
“I enjoy spending time with him and I find if I can spend time with him one-on-one and then quietly, I can start to learn a bit more about how he ticks and that can help me captain and lead him when I’m out in the middle as well. It works well both ways.”
Most thought Pucovski’s head knock was going to rule him out of another summer, but in Justin Langer’s words, the Victorian has decided he wants to get back on the horse.
Paine’s mission to take Pucovski under his wing – often at great personal embarrassment to himself – has played no small part.