Timothy David Paine (born 8 December 1984) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket and is the current captain of the Hobart Hurricanes. He is a right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper.
A product of the Australian Cricket Academy, Paine became the youngest-ever contracted player in Australia, when he received a rookie contract with Tasmania at 16 years of age.[citation needed] He made both his First-class and one-day debuts for Tasmania in 2005; scoring a one-day century later in the 2005–06 season, and a first-class hundred, 215, in the next. He was a part of the state's maiden Sheffield Shield (then the Pura Cup) season victory that season and also their 2007–08 one-day winning side. Paine made his ODI debut for Australia as a replacement for regular wicket-keeper Brad Haddin in 2009 against England, and in the series' sixth match, he scored his maiden international century. A further injury to Haddin in 2010 paved the way for Paine's Test debut against Pakistan in England. Soon after, he played in another two Tests against India, before Haddin's recovery for the 2010–11 Ashes series. Since that time, he has not been a regular in the Australian cricket side playing his last international in April 2011.
Paine captained Tasmania at Under–15 and Under–17 level, along with being a member of its Under–19 team at the age of just fifteen. He was vice-captain of the Australian Under–17, before scoring a first grade century for the University club in Hobart. "He was always the smallest one playing cricket," Paine's father John said. "We lived in a fairly quiet street and we lived right next to the beach [in the suburb of Lauderdale] so they used to play a fair bit of beach cricket. We used to have a cricket pitch in our backyard which was the driveway and the next-door neighbours had a turf wicket which the boys used to roll and mow and do all that sort of stuff. So he had to learn from an early age I suppose to be a bit stronger and a bit more competitive." As a junior, Paine was a talented Australian rules player—considered good enough to make the Australian Football League (AFL)—and his brother Nick, one of four siblings, plays in the Tasmanian Football League with the Clarence Football Club. Paine's uncle, Robert Shaw, was an AFL player and coach.
