Test stars recall dreams forged at underage level

Tim Paine was one of a number of contemporary Australia Test players to relive their own junior achievements while visiting the national under-19 male championships over recent days, but his memories are perhaps more redolent and more relevant than many.

In particular, there are two instances that remain pin-sharp in the Test captain's recollections.

The first is drawn from 2001 when, less than a week after turning 17, Paine watched from behind the stumps as Western Australia's 18-year-old Shaun Marsh took to a Tasmania bowling attack led by Ben Hilfenhaus at Newcastle's Cahill Oval.

Marsh, who with that Tasmania pair would become a future Test player, made just 17 in that day's bowler-dominated fixture, but the impression he left on an awestruck Paine was indelible.

Image Id: D4E5BAE749F94E8EA929227A340AB29D Image Caption: Paine with the Australia U19 team in 2004 // Getty

"That was the first time I played against Shaun Marsh," Paine told cricket.com.au in Perth, where the current under-19 male national championships are being contested.

"He hit the ball so hard, and he played a few cover drives that left me thinking, 'My God, he's the best player I've ever seen'."

A more poignant, and altogether more personal moment came flooding back when Paine dropped into Monday's match between Tasmania's under-19s and Victoria Country at Perth's Sutherland Park, prior to his team's first training session ahead of their upcoming Domain Test against New Zealand.

While chatting with Alister de Winter, the former Hobart Hurricanes coach and Australia bowling supremo who has returned to the Tasmania development coaching role he initially held when Paine was a teenage prodigy, he revisited a wager the pair had made 19 years earlier.

Paine recalls he was a 16-year-old, in his second-last year of national under-17s carnival cricket, when he became obsessed with the green floppy hat that de Winter had earned as a then-member of Tasmania men's one-day team, and which he wore every day in his role as the state's junior coach.

"It was the old Mercantile Mutual Cup (domestic one-day competition) hat and the Tassie youths, we didn’t get that, we just got the white one," Paine recalled.

"So I wanted that green one.

"He wore it every day and I was just on him and on him, and I can remember he said, 'If you hit a hundred tomorrow then I'll give it you'."

That tomorrow was the second day of Tasmania's crucial under-17 championship match against Victoria at Brisbane Grammar School, the winner of which would earn the right to compete in the top tier of the following year's competition.

Victoria had batted throughout day one before declaring at lunch on the second day with around 360 on the scoreboard, at which point Paine went out and scored 122 to make good his pledge to the coach.

While the match ended in a tie and Tasmania remained in division two, de Winter honoured his bet and the green hat – inscribed with details of Paine's innings – remains a prized possession of the current Test skipper at his parents' home in Hobart.

The headwear might endure as a powerfully tangible reminder of Paine's often challenging journey to the highest office in Australia men's cricket.

But its symbolism, as representation of the continuum that connects the nation's pathways programs and annual age-group championships to the elite-level men's and women's, is even more potent given events in Perth this week.

Last Sunday, men's Test team players David Warner, Joe Burns and Nathan Lyon – among the more than 150 graduates of the national male under-19 championships to have subsequently earned a Baggy Green Cap – visited the current tournament in Perth to lend their support and insights.

On Tuesday, members of one of the carnival's competing teams – the Cricket Australia XI coached by former Test stars Chris Rogers and Ryan Harris – will visit the national men's team's penultimate training session before the first Domain Series Test against New Zealand begins at Perth Stadium on Thursday.

And as Paine noted in the wake of Monday's visit to watch Tasmania's under-19 team and catch up with coaches and former first-class teammates de Winter and Jamie Cox, the link that remains between serving international cricketers and those aspiring to emulate them remains a cornerstone of Australia's pathways programs.

"I remember when we had Australian players turn up to our under-17 and under-19 carnivals, it gave kids great encouragement and great enjoyment to see international representatives," Paine said.

"So I try, whenever possible, to get down there and say g'day and wish them luck.

"I have life-long memories and friends from those national championships that I was part of.

"I came through that under-age system with George Bailey, Xavier Doherty and Ben Hilfenhaus, and all three are among my best mates.

"I think it's important to go back sometimes, to give a little bit back and remember what it was like to be those kids.

"When I first started in under-15s, I was playing purely for the love of the game.

"But when I went to under-17s and under-19s carnivals, that's when I started to think that this was something that I wanted to do.

"As a young boy from Tassie, I went to those carnivals with the dream of being good enough to one day play for Tasmania and to follow my heroes who back then were (David) Boon and (Ricky) Ponting and (Michael) di Venuto and (Jamie) Cox and (Dene) Hills who had been through that same pathway.

"I probably wasn't thinking then about playing for Australia, but I was certainly starting to think about playing for Tasmania … and then when you achieve that goal, you re-set and aim a bit higher."

While the annual under-age carnivals have increasingly acted as a proving ground for future international representatives since they were introduced 50 years ago, Paine stressed they were not the sole avenue to higher honours for aspiring young cricketers.

As a result, those among the 140 players currently taking part in the 10-team under-19 championship – including capped senior state players Jake Fraser-McGuirk (Victoria Metro) and Liam Scott (South Australia) – who fail to shine during the 10-day tournament should not feel disheartened.

"We've seen other guys who have found ways into domestic cricket and international cricket who haven't always come through the under-15s, 17s, 19s," Paine said.

"I think we're lucky in Australia that we've got that pathway, but there's also club cricket, second XI cricket – there's lots of other ways.

"So while it's nice for a young kid to get that recognition and go away and play in carnivals like the current one here in Perth, I also think it's not the end of the world for guys who don't make it."

While the event's honour board celebrates players-of-the-championship who would forge stellar international careers, among them New Zealand's Martin Crowe, David Hookes, Ian Healy, Steve Waugh, Michael Bevan, Adam Gilchrist, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Wade and Travis Head (twice), many have prospered after less-than-compelling returns.

Notable in that coterie is Steve Smith, who until recently was the world's top-ranked Test batter and who admits that – unlike his current Australia skipper – holds few clear memories of his two appearances for NSW at under-19 championships in 2006 and 2007.

In those tournaments, Smith was part of talented NSW line-ups that boasted players the calibre of the late Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and even England Test batter Sam Robson, who opened alongside Smith during the 2007 carnival in Hobart.

In the preceding year's championship in Adelaide, the future Australia captain paled alongside the event's predominant batters Wade and Hughes, and finished the tournament with fewer runs (92 at an average of 13.14) than rival specialist bowlers James Pattinson, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson.

However, despite playing just three of NSW's matches at the next summer's championship, Smith's potential was recognised and he was included in Australia's under-19 World Cup team for the 2008 competition in Malaysia alongside Hughes, Hazlewood, Pattinson, James Faulkner and Marcus Stoinis.

While his memories of specific matches and individual moments are not as readily recalled as Paine's, Smith shares his Test skipper's appreciation for the important role that under-age competitions play in Australia's broader cricket landscape.

And he understands acutely the context they provide, as well as the vital link they remain in the chain that stretches, unbroken, from schoolyard and community participation programs to Test match arenas such as Perth Stadium where Australia and New Zealand begin battle on Thursday.

"I think these under-19s and other competitions are a great breeding ground, and good for all the best young players from around the country to come up against each other," Smith told cricket.com.au.

"It's a competitive environment, and any time you play for your state at any level, it's a big honour.

"The under-19 championship is a great thing to be involved in, and I'm sure we're going to see some really good players come out of it."

"It's a good opportunity to see where guys are at, and also to see how they perform in a tournament environment.

"So it provides a great stepping stone for what's to come next."

The national male under-19 championship concludes in Perth on Thursday (Dec 12). Select matches are being live-streamed on the Cricket Australia YouTube account and the tournament final will be streamed live on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app

Domain Test Series v New Zealand

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

New Zealand: Todd Astle, Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Jeet Raval, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson (c)

First Test: December 12-16, Perth Stadium day-night (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)