In a shocking turn of events, Tim Paine stood down as Australia’s Test captain on November 19 as it emerged that he was involved in a series of explicit messages with a female co-worker back in the day.
Cricket Australia did an investigation and found Paine to be involved in a scandal over inappropriate private texts with a woman back in 2017.
The incident dates back to the time when Paine had been recalled to the Test side just prior to the previous home Ashes. Interestingly, he was jointly cleared of the case at the time by CA and even Cricket Tasmania.
But Paine has volunteered to resign from his captaincy post as he learnt that his messages are about to be made public.
“Today, I’m announcing my decision to stand down as the captain of the Australian men’s test team. It’s an incredibly difficult decision, but the right one for me, my family, and cricket,”
Paine said in a statement as quoted by cricket.com.au.
He confirmed that the “background” to his decision is a “text exchange with a then-colleague”.
“At the time, the exchange was the subject of a thorough CA Integrity Unit investigation, throughout which I fully participated in and openly participated in,”
he added.
The 36-year-old detailed the incident and his family’s reaction, explaining why he has chosen to come out in the open about it now. The wicketkeeper-batter mentioned that while the investigation done by CA and the Tasmania association found him in no breach of the expected code of conduct, he “deeply regretted” such an exchange and still does.
He added that he made his wife and the family aware of the same back then, and they had taken the “forgiveness” route, something he is “extremely grateful” for.
But it emerged to him that his exchange was now going to “become public” and since he personally finds his words in breach of the standards required of an Australian captain to be maintained, he has decided to leave his captaincy post.
Paine, however, has kept himself available for selection at the Ashes, starting December 8.
