Promote Warner or risk losing him pleads ex-skipper Tim Paine

Tim Paine says he believes Australian cricket needs to remove David Warner’s leadership ban or risk losing his services to the T20 leagues.

David Warner and Tim Paine share a moment before last year’s Boxing Day Test at the MCG. Picture: Getty Images.

Tim Paine says he believes Australian cricket needs to remove David Warner’s leadership ban or risk losing his services to the T20 leagues, and says he is disappointed by the treatment of former coach Justin Langer.

In his first major interview since leaving the game, Paine opened the door on a tumultuous 12 months since he was forced to stand down over a sexting scandal and the trauma his actions caused his family.

Paine has returned to state cricket with Tasmania and ­released a book, The Price Paid, to be published this week.

Speaking exclusively to The Weekend Australian, the former captain added to the cry from ­selector George Bailey for Cricket Australia to lift Warner’s ban as soon as possible.

“He’s absolutely been treated too harshly over the incident in South Africa,” Paine said.

“For some reason, he is still being punished for it and I don’t understand that. Dave said a few weeks ago that he thinks it is a culmination of him being the voice a few years ago of the MOU dispute, I don’t know.

“I think they have a chance to do a good thing and overturn it now but they’re saying they’d have to rewrite some part of the ­constitution, so do it.”

Cricket Australia’s board ­resolved recently to examine changing its code of conduct rules so it could lift the ban.

It had been approached in February by the Australian Cricketers Association and in August by NSW Cricket on the subject.

Sydney Thunder is keen to have Warner captain when he is available in the next BBL.

A few days after the board ­decided to review its rules, Pat Cummins was appointed to the ­vacant ODI role.

“I can see why they appointed Patty and it’s a good move,” Paine said. “He’s been fantastic in the Test job and this is only a limited campaign.”

It is expected that Steve Smith, Warner and possibly Alex Carey would step up if Cummins rests from matches.

“David is probably the best candidate and if you watch him bat at the start of this summer he looks like vintage David Warner, he’s fit as a fiddle, he’s got plenty of cricket left in him,” his former skipper said. “It makes sense to incentivise him, otherwise we could lose him to all the franchise leagues around the world.

“I used to love playing with him, I say that in the book. He is a bit of a goer, he is what he is, but for some reason he is one of those guys where people want to concentrate on his faults rather than all the great stuff he does.

“I have seen him do things that get written about, but if it was somebody else it wouldn’t (be).

“For some reason he is unfairly maligned, but if you play cricket with that bloke, he is on your team, he’s trying to do everything he can to win for the team.

“I thoroughly enjoyed playing with him throughout my time playing cricket for Australia. If they reverse that decision we could see him go on with his level of skill to play for Australia for years. It’s not something they should look at, they should do it.”

In the book Paine details his ­efforts last year to mediate a solution to issues between members of the playing group and Langer.

The former opener’s coaching career came to an abrupt end ­despite the side winning the T20 World Cup and the Ashes.

Langer was insulted by an offer of a six-month contract extension and walked away from the game.

“It looked messy, I think it wasn’t handled that well, they should have made a decision much earlier if they wanted to go in ­another direction or if they wanted to back him in,” Paine said.

“For some reason these things get played out through the media instead of internally; you can’t have your head coach under that much scrutiny in the media – or your players.

“I’ve been close to JL for a long time, since I was 24 when he was the batting coach for Australia.

“He was very good to me when I was young in that set-up, and when you are a kid in that set-up it can be bloody daunting. I always enjoyed his company, just as I ­enjoyed Ricky Ponting’s.

“They were two legends of the game but never acted like it, they were just pretty normal and treated me normally when I was young.

“It was probably as tough a finish for him as it was for me in the end, but I spoke to him the other day and he was saying how happy he is at the moment, and it’s the same for me.

“He loved coaching Australia and I loved playing for Australia, sometimes it can drain you and make you a slightly different person, but he says he is so happy now and relaxed, and I am glad to hear that. I think he is as well.

“That job can put you under huge stress and pressure and it is not until you walk away that you realise there can be better options and better things to do, and he is in a good place, which is great.”

Paine spoke about the events of last year and the ­impact on his family in an exclusive interview with The Weekend ­Australian magazine. Paine says that while he never looked beyond the end of the next series there was every chance he would have played on.

“People can believe that or not, but I have said consistently from the moment I came back into the Test team that I would be foolish to look past the series I was playing,” he said.

“In the first instance I was named to play in the first two Tests of that Ashes series and all I could think about was doing well enough to play at the WACA in the third one because it was an iconic ground. I was hoping to do enough to stay in (the team) that long and then I wanted to play in the Boxing Day Test and I was thinking how amazing that would be against ­England. By then I started to think how amazing it would be to go to South Africa and play them because they had a great team.

“Then I started to think ‘gee, I wouldn’t mind going to the UAE and then England’. Look, the pressure and scrutiny you are under in Test match cricket is intense, but the life is bloody awesome.

“I never looked past the next series or the next Test and maybe that allowed me to have a bit more success than when I first played.

“I was looking at playing the Ashes. My manager Hendo (James Henderson) asked me what was I thinking and if I’d retire at the end and I said ‘I could, but what happens if I get a couple of hundreds and keep as well as I have ever kept?”

“Physically, I don’t feel, even now, anywhere near 37, so why would I? It was never about my age, it was about whether I could perform my role and was I physically up to it. At the time leading into the Ashes I did feel good, and if I felt well going into the next series I would do the same, and I couldn’t care less if I was 40 or 45.”

Tim Paine The Price Paid … will be published by Pan MacMillan on October 25