Tim Paine answers Michael Clarke, Gerard Whateley

After Clarke and eminent commentator Gerard Whateley, current Australian captain Tim Paine has defended his team's approach since Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were suspended following the ballooning falsification scandal in Africa. South earlier this year.

He added that Clarke's suggestion that the team "must stop hurting themselves to be loved and start worrying about being respected" is out of place.

"No one has spoken of being loved, certainly by opposition," Paine told ESPNcricinfo. "We talked about the desire to win the trust of the Australian public and to make sure you clearly want the Australian public and cricket fans to like or love the Australian test team. That's the point, but from the point of view of the opposition, we do not want to be a little bit beloved. "

Paine said that after a delicate test in Johannesburg after the resignation of Smith, Warner and Bancroft, his team had "competed as hard as possible" against Pakistan in the UAE without his front line bowling attack.

"We're always going to play hard at Australian cricket, as Michael has said, that's not going to change … it's just knowing that we will sometimes need to pull it out and make sure we get the most important thing just first and that's our skill. "

However, Clarke found an ally in the previously beloved first opus, Matthew Hayden, who told Wednesday night at a dinner at CGS: "You do not play because you want to be a good guy."

"I know our truth as Australian cricketers, we play our best cricket when you fight, and now the word" fight "refers to fist fights, verbal diarrhea and racial and religious taunts. 'is nothing about it,' said Hayden, quoted by Fairfax.

"It's a body language and the fact that as Australians, when you cross that line and play MBS, it's our country, our territory." And under our watch, we want to try to win. And I think that's really what Michael would try to say: it's about this competitive advantage.

& # 39; & # 39; I know if we lose that, and even our great time of Australian cricket when we lost that advantage – and I think about it after the match against India, here – and everyone was a little hit by this incident and a little worried about whether we were overtaking the mark? and to know if we should play the game in this spirit? We started to play badly. And I do not think it's right.

"My expectations, as a fan, forget a former player is that our athletes, men or women, whatever their code, seek to win the game or win their event. I think it's the mentality that we have to play our best in any code. "

New coach Justin Langer and Paine's attempt to launch a new era, free of verbal abuse and a series of victories, have prompted many reactions.

South African team captain Faf du Plessis highlighted Australia's participation in a recent series of ODIs, while Shane Warne and former England captain Michael Vaughan took part in the tournament. mocked the pact.

Clarke became the last high-level player to criticize Tuesday, calling Paine to return to "tough Australian cricket".

"If you're trying to cope, we may be the most popular team in the world, but we will not win. We will not win a match. Boys and girls want to win, "Clarke told Macquarie Sports Radio.

Comments have been criticized by SEN commentator Gerard Whateley. "Clarke's interpretation of the difficult situation in which the Australian men's test team is standing is breathtaking," said Whateley. "The fact that he continues to rely on the replica – the fiction that his teams and subsequent teams had usually excused for all kinds of shameful behavior – could constitute the most great absurdity of the last nine months.

"The summer test in front of us is a critical time of recalibration and Paine and his team who remain in front of the enormous responsibility of restoring the national cricket character deserve better than Clarke hopes. To hear him, read it just made me angry.

Simon Katich, Clarke's long-time rival, also replied to the former skipper.

"Once again, we find someone (Clarke) missing the goal," Katich told SEN radio.

"We were caught blatantly cheating and we need to fix it as quickly as possible and regain the respect of the cricket public in Australia and around the world. Our behavior is a big part of that.

"We have been a hated team for a number of years because of this on-the-ground behavior, and that has obviously taken a toll on Cape Town.

"It's a difficult battle for this team to bear the burden of what is presented to them. It will not be easy. "

But Clarke retaliated against Whateley, calling it "title in pursuit of a coward" in a very strong statement.

The recent Ethics Center report, commissioned by Cricket Australia (CA) following the cheating scandal in Cape Town, raised concerns about a team culture of winning without cost and "normalizing abuses". in Australian cricket. "

Langer, who recently met Smith and Warner in Sydney, is fed up with talking about his team's behavior.

"I'm not sure what people expect of us," he said last week.

"We can not confuse the messages. On the one hand, we are too aggressive and have probably crossed the finish line. Now we call ourselves tamed. "