Paine 'very interested' in Adelaide Strikers role if jobs are split

Tim Paine would be "very interested" in putting his name forward to be Adelaide Strikers' head coach if South Australia decide to split the state and BBL coaching roles following Jason Gillespie's departure.

There is a significant overhaul going on at South Australia this off-season with long-time general manager of high performance Tim Nielsen departing along with Gillespie. Luke Williams, who has become a sought-after coach in T20 leagues, has also stepped down as head coach of the women's state team although will remain in charge of the WBBL side and has signed as an assistant coach in the BBL.

Paine was an assistant coach with Strikers in last season's BBL as they reached the Challenger final and is keen to progress his career but remained realistic about where he would stand.

"Would I like to coach the Adelaide Strikers? Of course, I would," Paine said on SEN Tassie Breakfast. "But at the moment, they have no GM of cricket and a number of other roles that need to be filled before any of that happens.

"They need to decide with South Australia and the Strikers, do you go down the same model they've just had of one coach, in which case I cannot do it, [but] if they were to split the roles, I would be very interested certainly in having a crack at getting the job."

"But I've been coaching for about six months and it's a big job and I'd imagine it would get a lot of experienced coaches interested in that job as well. But I would love to go through the process because, one, it would be a great learning curve for me as a professional coach, to go through some sort of process would be awesome for my development, but like any coach of course you want to coach in the biggest leagues you can get in."

Paine added that it wasn't the right time in his career to consider a combined state and BBL role as he would not want to move his family out of Tasmania. "If you are looking at a Big Bash job and state job, that is enormous," he said.

Currently, the four states with a single BBL team - South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia - have opted for a unified head coach across the state and BBL set-up. Brisbane Heat, the defending champions, are also in need of a new coach after Wade Seccombe stood down.