Former Australia all-rounder John Hastings recently shared a hilarious memory from the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, featuring Tim Paine, Brad Haddin, and India’s Yuvraj Singh.

The 39-year-old recounted that during a party attended by Bollywood stars, things took an unexpected turn. A light-hearted moment escalated into a complete standstill when he accidentally broke a hotel table, grabbing everyone’s attention instantly.

Hastings laughed while recalling the chaos that followed, as the sudden incident left his teammates and guests in shock before the atmosphere eased back into fun. The story has since become one of his most memorable off-field moments from the tournament.

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John Hastings Talked About an Incident, Happened During 2011 World Cup:

The former Australian medium-pacer jokingly shared that after the incident, he quickly picked up the hotel phone and pretended to have a conversation with reception, acting as if nothing unusual had happened — even though the line was dead. He admitted feeling relieved that no fine came his way for the damage.

Hastings added that, despite the mishap, the night carried on in high spirits, and he enjoyed the celebrations to the fullest. Speaking to LiSTNR Sport, he recounted the story with a smile, saying it remains one of his funniest off-field memories from his playing days.

He said, “ It was one of those ones where we’d obviously had a few and I think you know we’d obviously been invited up to Yuvi’s (Yuvraj Singh) room and walked in and there was a suite. It was massive. It was as big as my house over here. And I remember looking around, I just jeez there’s so many people in here.”

He further said, “ What’s going on with this music? So, I was fiddling around with the laptop trying to get some of my playlist on and I sat on the edge of this… There was a ledge that had a phone on there. There was a laptop, I sat on it and bof off it came down on the floor and I just remember everyone just stopped and looked and went silent, dead quiet, pin could drop.”

He added, “ I just went, ‘What am I going to do here? I’m a young kid.’ It’s Yuvraj Singh’s room. There are so many people here. There’s probably Bollywood celebrities everywhere, and I just went, 'Right, stay calm,’ and I went to the phone, which was already out off the wall, and I’d seen the cord be ripped out of the wall. So, I just thought, I’ll just make sure that I’ve made this right.”

He further said, “ And there was no one on the end of the line. So, I picked up the phone. I said, ‘Reception,’ yep. John Hastings, I just want to make sure that there’s a bit of damage in Mr. Singh’s room. I’ll make sure I fix it up. I’m in the room such and such. And everyone was like, 'Well done, mate. That’s brilliant.’ And everyone just kicked on, played on.”

He concluded, “ I actually went down to reception to make sure that I could rectify the situation, but there was never another word. So, happy days. I didn’t had to pay for any damage and we had a really good night.”

John Hastings did not feature in any match for Australia during the 2011 World Cup but went on to play 29 ODIs, nine T20Is, and a Test, claiming 50 wickets overall. Interestingly, Yuvraj Singh was linked with several Bollywood actresses before marrying Hazel Keech in November 2015, marking a celebrated chapter in his personal life.

Yuvraj Singh Crowned Best Player of the 2011 World Cup:

Yuvraj Singh played a pivotal role in India’s 2011 World Cup triumph, earning the Player of the Tournament award for his remarkable all-round show. His performances were crucial in ending India’s 28-year wait for the title.

With the bat, Yuvraj scored 362 runs in eight innings at an impressive average of 90.50, which included one century and four fifties. With the ball, his left-arm spin proved equally valuable, as he claimed 15 wickets in nine matches. His consistency in both departments made him one of the biggest match-winners of the tournament and a key figure in India’s historic victory.

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine has been named head coach of Australia "A" side for the coming season, marking a new chapter in his post-playing career. With a number of senior Australian Test players nearing retirement, Cricket Australia is starting to invest significant resources into developing the next batch of talent—making Paine's new appointment an important one in the national setup.

Since his retirement from the game of professional cricket in 2023, Paine has been close to the game through media commentary and work and the odd bit of coaching with the Australia women's team and the Australia "A" program. But with this full-time role now secured, Paine confirmed he would leave his radio show to be able to do it all full-time.

"It's time to spread my wings," Paine told listeners on SEN radio on Friday. "I've been working with Australia 'A' as an assistant coach, and the opportunity has come up for me to be the head coach. I feel like it's a hard balancing act to pursue a coaching career and talk in the media. The Australia 'A' program is very exciting; there's a lot of young talent to work with. It's something I really enjoy doing. I'm very lucky, and I'm really looking forward to the next part of my journey."

Australia eyes generational shift with Paine at the helm

Australia could see a significant turnover in its Test squad following this year's Ashes, with experienced players like Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon all in the twilight of their careers. In this context, the Australia "A" side will serve as a critical pipeline for future national players, and Paine’s leadership will be key in preparing them for the highest level.

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Cricket Australia also confirmed that Paine will continue contributing to the women’s national team and maintain his role with the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League. The Australia A squad for the upcoming fixtures includes Joel Curtis, Harry Dixon, Zanden Jeh, Campbell Kellaway, Angus Lovell, Rafael MacMillan, Ollie Peake, Lloyd Pope, Niv Radhakrishnan, Jason Sangha, Liam Scott, and Lachlan Shaw.

Cricket Australia (CA) has announced the coaching team for the Prime Minister’s XI, which will play a three-day first-class match against the visiting team India. The former Australian Test captain has been named as the head coach of the Prime Minister’s XI.

PM XI match is not a part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Indians will face the Prime Minister’s XI after the first match of the five-match Test series against the hosts Australia. It is a special match that is not a part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It is an annual cultural match as PM XI face the touring side. It can be played in any format.

PM XI will face Indians at Manuka Oval, Canberra. It will be played on November 30, 31, and December 1. It will be India’s first meeting against PM XI since their 2007/08 tour. The last time Indians faced PM XI was in January 2004, when Indians won the thriller by one run in a 50-over match at Canberra.

Tim Paine will be PM XI head coach

Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has been chosen as the head coach of the Prime Minister’s XI. CricketACT coaches Erin Osborne and Justin McNally will play the assistant coach roles for the team.

Check the complete Australia tour schedule for India

India will start their Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign on November 22 from Perth. So, their match against the Prime Minister’s XI will be played after the Perth Test.

After the Canberra tour match, Adelaide will host the day/night pink-ball Test match, starting on December 6. The Gabba, Brisbane, will host the third Test of the series from December 14. 

Melbourne will host the Boxing Day Test (December 26-30), and Sydney will host the New Year Test (January 3-7, 2025) of the series. 

Since 2016/17, India have been holding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, as they won the last four Test series, all by 2-1 margins. Last time, Australia won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in the 2014/15 season, when India lost the Test series by 2-0. 

Australia secured a close victory against New Zealand in the second Test match in Christchurch. Despite a shaky start at 80/5, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, and Pat Cummins staged a remarkable comeback to chase down 279 runs.

Paine’s critique on Australia’s batting form

However, former Australia captain Tim Paine expressed dissatisfaction with the team’s performance despite the series sweep against New Zealand. He said, “I’m disappointed. We’re a better team than them (New Zealand) and it was the same against the West Indies, there seems to be a bit of a pattern. Not scoring enough runsâ€æ you can’t always believe what they’re telling you but the leadership and coaching and captain and selectors say, ‘we have no concerns with our batters’. Well, I do now.”

Paine highlights worries about facing England and India

Paine criticized the inconsistency of the top-order batsmen, pointing out their struggles since the West Indies Test series. He strongly questioned the team’s ability to compete against England and India later in 2024, especially with concerns regarding the form of players like Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, and Marnus Labuschagne. He added, “There are more questions coming out of the last three or four Tests than answers, and we need to find some answers pretty quickly.” 

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Paine particularly highlighted worries about facing India’s formidable fast bowling lineup featuring Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. He said some more in this and added, “We might not beat New Zealand, we’ve lost a Test to West Indies, we wouldn’t beat England if they were playing well with a full-strength sideâ€æ India are certainly going to trouble us with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, so there are some concerns.” 

Despite Australia’s rise to the second spot in the World Test Championship standings, with 8 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw from 12 matches, Paine emphasized the need for improvement to maintain competitiveness against top-ranked teams.

On Friday, March 17, former Australian captain Tim Paine retired from all formats of cricket after the Sheffield Shield match which is held between Tasmania and Queensland in Hobart. When the 4-day match is about to end in a draw his teammates gave him a guard of honor as a result Paine gets emotional.

In his last match, he scored 42 in just 62 balls for Tasmania in the first innings of the Sheffield Shield while in the second innings, he was unbeaten for 3 runs. He played his first debut match in the year of 2005 against South Australia. After playing 95 successful Sheffield Shield Match he ended his first-class career.

Tim Paine is a record holder on the Sheffield Shield. He holds the record for most dismissals in first-class cricket by a Tasmanian wicketkeeper – 295. He made his comeback in August 2022 after taking a mental health break last year. In the 2022-23 domestic season, he played only 7 matches and scored 156 runs with an average of 17.33. Paine with an average of 30 scored over 4000 runs in first-class cricket & was part of 2 title-winning campaigns with Tasmania.

Tim Paine played his last first-class match for Tasmania on the Sheffield Shield

But before the start of the legendary Ashes in 2021, he resigned as captain, when he was regarded as the best wicketkeeper of the Australian side. Paine stepped down and take out of the series after allegations of some adultery news became public.

After that Pat Cummins took his place as test captain of Cricket Australia and it leads Australia to Ashes victory. Tim Paine did a great job when the Australia senior national team was going through the ball-tampering scandal in 2018. Paine replaced Smith and did a great job as the skipper of australian cricket team.

For Australia Paine played 35 tests, and lead them in 23 of them. Tim Paine was the captain when team India win their maiden test series in 2018-19 and in his time India won the Gabba fortress in 2020-21, completing a second successive series win. But in the end, Paine had a good record of winning 11 matches out of 23 and losing only 8 matches.