Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine is training as well as he was before he stepped away from cricket and could yet find himself back in the Big Bash.
Paine has been back training with Tasmania’s first-class squad and eyeing off a comeback in the state’s grade competition, which begins in October, having been out of the game since last November when he relinquished the captaincy after a sexting scandal.
The 37-year-old has been back training fully for two weeks and Tasmanian coach Jeff Vaughan, who is also coach of the Hobart Hurricanes, confirmed he could yet be considered for the final vacant spot on the Big Bash franchise’s list.
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“He’s two weeks back into his training schedule again (and has) been really good in the nets,” Vaughan said on Tuesday.
“(He’s) good physically, good emotionally. Look, there’s a chance, but he’ll be one of a number of players we’ll look at for that last position.
“He’s been keeping and telling us how good he‘s going. We all have faith and trust in his ’keeping skill set.
“He‘s very much training as he was 12, 18 months ago.”
Paine has played 43 matches for Hobart, the last in BBL07, but hasn’t played first class cricket since he stepped down from the Test captaincy before last year’s home Ashes series after it was revealed he sent lewd messages to a female Cricket Tasmania employee in 2007.
Vaughan said there was no rush for the Hurricanes to fill their final spot and he had not chatted to Paine specifically about the Big Bash.
“It’s a position we could fill tomorrow, it’s a position we could fill really late,” he said.
“There’s no obvious holes we need to fill, it’s good to have that capability to wait.”
The Hurricanes have two wicketkeepers in their group already, with Matthew Wade and part-time gloveman Ben McDermott on their books.
When it emerged Paine was back in training, his successor as Test captain, Pat Cummins, said he hoped a return to cricket was in Paine’s future.
“Someone like Painey, firstly as a mate you want to make sure he’s OK. We all make mistakes,” Cummins said.
“He did the wrong thing but he tried to fix the situation as best as he could … I really feel for him.”
