‘My Leadership wasn’t good enough ‘ Tim Paine apologised for his poor behavior

Byline By- Vinayak Heliwal

Australian skipper Tim Paine on Tuesday apologized for his on-field behavior during the drawn Sydney Test against India, saying that his leadership was not good enough and he ended up ‘looking like a fool’ after sledging Ravichandran Ashwin.

Fewer than 24 hours later, Paine called an impromptu press conference this morning to apologize for his poor behavior throughout the Sydney Test and also conceding that his darkening mood ultimately contributed to his Team’s failure against India.

On the final day of the Sydney Test Tim Paine had a verbal spat with Ashwin when the All-rounder held Vigil with an injured Hanuma Vihari to successfully seek out a draw for his team while chasing a mammoth total of 407.

The Australian captain said he spoke to the veteran Indian spinner after the fifth day’s play, telling him “I ended up looking the fool, didn’t I?”.”You open your mouth and then you drop a catch. We had a bit of a laugh about that,” he said.

Paine said. “I want to apologize for the way I went about things yesterday. I’m someone who prides myself on the way I lead this team and yesterday was a poor reflection of that.

“My leadership wasn’t good enough, I let the pressure of the game get to me, it affected my mood and then from there affected my performance. Yesterday when I came off the ground my reflection was purely on my wicketkeeping. Sitting back last night and reflecting on the whole game, I think I said to our players yesterday I’ve had a really poor game as a leader, not so much as a captain but certainly as a leader.

According to Paine his behavior on Monday wasn’t a reflection of the way he wants to lead the Australian team and he apologizes for his mistake.

The fourth Test between India and Australia will start from 15 January in Brisbane