Tim Paine’s brother Nick on how the Australian captain developed his competitive fire

Labelled the ‘toughest pretty boy’ in Australian cricket, Test captain Tim Paine has been a beacon for the sport. His brother opens up on where that competitive fire comes from.

The evolution of Australian captain Tim Paine.

The backyard battles took an early physical toll on Nick Paine.

He would spend countless hours toiling in the summer sun, bowling to the now Australian Test captain in a bid to snare his wicket.

More often than not he failed.

“He was always very determined,’’ Nick recalled this week of his younger brother Tim.

“Put it this way, I had certain back injuries over my early years of playing sport because I was constantly bowling to him every day. I couldn’t get him out.”

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Tim Paine is now the conductor of Australia’s Test team. Picture: Getty Images

In those early days growing up in Tasmania, Tim had to know his place.

“I don’t know if he came out on top too many times except for the times I couldn’t get him out,” Nick said.

“I suppose the older brother always had the upper hand.

“It was just that when it came to cricket when I couldn’t get him out, I just had to keep bowling.

“He was always Australia in the backyard. I didn’t mind the West Indies, so I was always them.’’

More than two decades on, Paine truly has become captain Australia.

Instead of standing up to his big brother in the backyard, it’s Indian captain, superstar and antagonist Virat Kohli.

Paine stamped his leadership on Australia’s second Test victory over India in Perth last week, his first since taking over the Test captaincy and the team’s first in a Test since Australian cricket imploded after the infamous sandpaper-gate in South Africa.

The skipper, who Australian coach Justin Langer has described as “the toughest pretty boy” he’s ever met, won plenty of admirers after going head-to-head with the world’s best batsman during an at times heated battle in Perth as his side levelled the series 1-1.

Setting the scene for an explosive Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, the wicketkeeper-batsman declared after the win that he was not going to let his team be “walked all over”.

“At times you have got to draw a line and start sticking up for yourself and sticking up for your teammates,” Paine said.

Paine’s exchanges with Kohli came as no surprise to his brother Nick.

“I was only talking to him before he left and I just knew that if Virat had fired up or started getting like he did that no doubt Tim was going to confront the situation, as I suppose every good captain does,’’ Nick said.

“He has always had that real steely resolve to not only achieve something in cricket, but he has been able to stand up for himself and the people he has played sport with which is a really good quality to have.

“When he got appointed captain, I thought the Australian public are really going to see what he’s made of over the next few months and upcoming series.

“Everyone has seen (in Perth) what he can be really like in terms of his leadership and how he stands up for his teammates. I’ve always known that he would be able to do that and handle himself.’’

Paine and Indian captain Virat Kohli had a number of run-ins during the Perth Test. Picture: Getty Images

Stump mic revealed exactly what the Tasmanian was made of in Perth when it captured what has become an instantly classic sledge directed at Kohli.

Delivering an on-field barb to Indian batsman Murali Vijay, Paine quipped: “Murali, I know he’s your captain, but you can’t seriously like him as a bloke.’’

Certainly the folk from Paine’s University Cricket Club in Hobart remember his pointed on-field chatter.

Enrico Di Venuto, who first met Paine as a 12-year-old and coached him throughout his teenage years and beyond at the club, said he had always been forthright on the field.

“Being a ’keeper, they are the guys that do the work, they set the example out on the field and he has always been chirpy,’’ Di Venuto said.

“There was never a backward step. Never, regardless of who they were.

“You’d be playing against state players and things like that and he’d always have something to say. They’d make comments to him like ‘junior’ and things like that and he’d just say something back.

Paine was good with the gloves, even when in the Under 17 Tasmanian team.

“He was very, very sharp … it’s not abusive stuff, just sharp, directed. He is a fighter.’’

Di Venuto always considered Paine to be the “best gloveman in Australia”, a naturally talented sportsman, and said his leadership qualities were clear from an early age.

“We didn’t recruit him, he came to the club down at Uni after we did some coaching clinics down at Lauderdale and probably 10 or 15 other kids came with him,’’ Di Venuto said.

“They just followed him along. They were all mates and along they came … he just led from the front.

“The old man (John Paine) came with him and he’s still managing the bar down there now.

“He was no different to what he is now. The kid hasn’t changed. He just performed and took other blokes along with him.

“He is starting to make people notice. He is not a smart-arse, he will just take the public and everyone along with him. That’s the type of guy he is and the players are backing him.’’

Paine’s initiation to the Test captaincy was never going to be an easy one after the scandal in Cape Town.

As the ripple effects continued for months afterwards, it took 10 months for Paine to taste victory as captain, the reward for his role in helping steer Australian cricket out of the darkness.

Tim Paine in 2004 as captain of the Australian Under 19 team.

Paine as a youngster with the Tasmanian Tigers in the then-Pura Cup.

Nick Paine had dispatched a text message to his brother when he stepped into the hot seat, simply telling him to “lead from the front as everyone knows that you can”.

“He got thrust into it pretty quick and while it was a pretty tough time for him because of the situation that had happened, you’re proud to be the captain of Australia,’’ Nick said.

“I think once they were able to get back into Australia and sit down and assess ways and means of going forward with Justin Langer, I think he has always had a really clear vision of how to get the side back on track and get the country back behind them.

“The end result of that, or the start of that almost, was the other day (in Perth) and the result they got.

“I can’t really even sit there and watch him without sort of getting goosebumps … just the way that he’s handled himself not only on the field, but off the field. I was as proud as punch.’’

And no doubt happy that he stood up to him in those backyard battles in Lauderdale all those years ago.

Paine celebrates his ton for Australia against England in 2009.

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