Tim Paine wouldn't have been approaching the 2019 Ashes in UK as Australia skipper and instead be working for cricket equipment company Kookaburra at the moment if he hadn't made a career-changing phone call to nation's former captain and batting great Ricky Ponting two years back.
Paine took over the reins last year after finding himself amidst the controversial ball-tampering saga that had 12-month bans in store for Steve Smith and David Warner following their proven involvement in trying to alter the condition of the ball during the infamous Cape Town Test.
"Yes, that’s right. I had only been offered a one-year contract with Tasmania, which I felt didn’t offer me enough security, and so I simply couldn’t turn down the chance to start a new career," Paine told Fox Sports in an interview.
"I still loved the game, but for the sake of my family I believed I had to make a sensible decision. It just felt like my time in the game had come to a natural end."
And then the 34-year-old was preparing to move from Hobart to Melbourne.
"That’s right, and so I phoned Ricky Ponting, who had made the same move several years earlier. “Hi mate, could you keep an eye out for me and see if there are any houses in Brighton up for sale?” I asked him. I was sort of joking because I couldn’t afford to live in Ricky’s neighbourhood in Melbourne, but I thought he could give me some advice about where else was good in the city."
"Ricky was really confused: ‘I don’t understand. What on earth are you talking about?’ he said. I explained my situation, and how I only had a one-year offer from Tasmania, and planned to retire from cricket and take this new job," the wicket-keeper batsman added.
"He listened and just said, ‘Just wait, let me make some calls.’ Within a few days I had an improved two-year-deal with Tasmania, and that changed everything so I decided to keep playing. Things could have been very different if I hadn’t made that call to Ricky."
The accidental leader self-admitted he perhaps would still be in England but not for cricketing reasons if he hadn't talked to Ponting that day.
"I could very easily be in England this summer, but working for Kookaburra, and getting the bats ready for the players, but instead I am captaining them in the Ashes. It feels amazing to say that, and this is all like a dream for me," Paine concluded.
The Ashes begins on August 1 with the first Test at Edgbaston.
