Australia’s captain Tim Paine hit back at Michael Clarke’s comment about the national team being worried about liked by the opposition following the ball-tampering controversy in South Africa.

Clarke said that if the Australian team is worried about being liked then the team won’t win anything. However, Paine expressed that the team has not spoken about being liked by anyone.

“No one has spoken about being liked, certainly by the opposition. We’ve spoken about wanting to get the Australian public’s trust and make sure that clearly you want the Australian public and cricket fans to like or love the Australian Test team,” Paine told ESPNCricinfo.

The 33-year-old added that the Australian side will try to make it difficult for the opposition to play against them through their skill and not through words.

“I think there’s been times in the past where we’ve gone overboard with that and actually gone away from what we’re good at. Our number one strength is our skill, so we’ve got to play hard cricket in terms of making it difficult for guys to bat against us and to difficult to bowl against us - we want to make it an uncomfortable environment for people to play against us, but we want to do it mainly by our skills,” said Paine.

However, Paine added that the Australian players have the freedom to indulge in a few verbal banters, but they will not go over the top.

“It depends on the individual. I know some guys enjoy it, for some guys it doesn’t matter. In Test cricket and with some of the guys in the Indian side there’s going to be times where there’s a bit of heat out in the middle, and guys are going to be right into the contest. The focus for us has got to be on delivering our skill as well as we possibly can, so if guys want to get involved in a bit of that stuff to get themselves going, then that’s great,” Paine added.

“But we now know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong, and what’s expected. We’re not going to be going over the top, but certainly you’ve got to stand up for your team and your teammates, and I’m sure when the time comes for that we’ll be doing that. But the main focus for us will be to play the best cricket we can.”

First Published: Nov 28, 2018 22:02 IST