Tim Paine credits moment of Ashes history to team character after Cape Town low and years of planning
Australia’s accidental captain’s bid to restore national pride is complete, adding on-field success by retaining the Ashes in England to his measured leadership off it following the Cape Town scandal.
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Emotions spilt over for Australian captain Tim Paine as an 18-month journey from the lows of Cape Town to the highs of an Ashes success in England were realised at Old Trafford.
Jubilation doesn’t do justice to the look of unadulterated exhilaration on the faces of Paine and his players when three red lights on the big screen in Manchester signalled the sweetest of victories.
The accidental captain had become a history-maker with a group of young and old players ordered to restore pride in a team Australia wanted to love but for so long couldn’t.
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When he holds the Ashes urn at The Oval in 10 days or so Paine will do something even greats like Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke could never manage.
With coach Justin Langer, and the planning of team staff that stretches back two years, the Australian team under Paine has gone beyond just restoring that pride, they have become winners in their own right, and everyone loves a winner.
Coming through the sandpaper scandal was one thing, but even the challenges of this series were enough to make some teams break.
The return of Steve Smith and David Warner, with a target on their backs from an English crowd which finds a way to penetrate the strongest team bubble, was among myriad issues the Australians knew they would confront.
A brittle, young batting order, and a recent history of failures in England were on a long list of questions Paine, in his first Ashes series as captain, had to handle.
But with the genius batting of Smith, the brilliant bowling of a pace battery unlike anything Australia has seen and a solid dedication to the process, and backing his men, Paine and this Australian outfit have thrived.
The captain credited the character of everyone in his Ashes squad, who also had to rebound from a loss at Headingley two Sundays before, where a win would have secured the urn three Tests in.
So they celebrated with such gusto the entire grandstand in Manchester was shaking while the sun set as Paine and his “bunch of bloody good cricketers” revelled in their historic achievement.
“You are going to see emotion when you get a bunch of people together who have a common goal and have worked so hard for it for such a long time,” Paine said.
“This has been two years in the planning so to carry it out over here under pressure and with everything we’ve had thrown at us, I couldn’t be more proud of the way our group have handled everything.
“The group has clearly been through a bit of adversity, some more than others.
“But the guys sat in that change room have been through what happened at Cape Town and its times like that you find out what sort of people you have got and you find people who can give up or keep fighting.
“I think we have got guys who have come back and kept fighting and are wanting to get better.
“We haven’t had a lot of success and not a lot of happy times. But we are beginning to get them and that is awesome.”
Paine could have happily revelled in the personal satisfaction of achieving a feat no other Australian captain had for 18 years.
He took on the job with a cricket side at an all-time low, his own place in the side far from certain, and criticism sure to come upon the slightest mistake.
But inside the Australian cricket bubble praise for Paine has gone to new levels this series, as he galvanised a squad to block out any negative noise.
And the skipper, while acknowledging the achievement of a childhood dream, preferred to point to a team goal so sweetly fulfilled.
“My dream was to come here and win an Ashes. I certainly didn’t want to be the captain winning the Ashes. It doesn’t mean any more or any less to me,” he said.
“I have said a lot of time my part in this team is just one job that many are doing I just get a lot of the credit I suppose. I am just happy to be a part of it.
“I could have been working at Kookaburra so this isn’t bad.”
England players spoke of taking all the momentum of that last day miracle in Leeds, on which Paine conceded he made mistakes as the home team completed a record run-chase, in to the fourth Test.
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But the Australians never wavered, nor Paine as he bore the brunt for that loss.
It was the strong sense of unity and purpose, laid out before the series even began, which the captain said set the platform for an immediate bounce back, and now a momentous Ashes win that puts Paine, and his team, in to the history books, from which they will never be removed.
“In terms of what we’ve been able to achieve as a group is pretty satisfying from where we’ve come from in the last 18 months … also from where we’ve come from even from last week,” Paine said.
“That was a loss that would break a lot of teams but weren’t. I could feel it during the week. We turned up here and did our job like good sports teams do.
“Headingley’s loss make this all the more sweeter after a lot of people wrote us off.”
Originally published as Tim Paine credits moment of Ashes history to team character after Cape Town low and years of planning