Australian wicketkeeper-batter Tim Paine’s future looks highly uncertain in the playing capacity. The 37-year-old doesn’t feature in Tasmania’s contract list announced for the 2022-23 Australian summer, leading many to believe the 37-year-old’s playing career is effectively over.
This, after he had resigned as Test captain and taken an indefinite break just prior to the last summer’s Ashes series after the revelation of his inappropriate backdated conversation with a woman. The conversation was from the time Paine had returned to the Australian squad for the 2017-18 Ashes series at home, a few months prior to his appointment as the side’s captain in the aftermath of the ball-tampering saga.
With the woman, a co-worker at Cricket Tasmania, threatening to bring his exchange and the sexist remarks to the public light, Paine voluntarily resigned from his position, stating he felt his conduct was contrary to what is expected of an Australian captain and cricketer.
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He was expected to take part in the Sheffield Shield later in the season to claim a spot in the Pakistan Test tour in March-April and decided not to engage in playing duties, although he returned to the Tasmanian set-up as an assistant coach.
The 37-year-old now seems likely to continue being a member of the support staff of the club as it has offered him no fresh contract for the next summer, potentially bringing to an end his career internationally and domestically. As per ESPNcricinfo, the player is “keen to remain involved in cricket in a coaching or development role.”
However, his playing career appears over at this point, having turned out in 147 first-class and 136 List A matches on the domestic front, apart from his 35 Tests, 35 ODIs and 12 T20Is for Australia.
Paine is the most notable absentee from Tasmania’s enlarged contract list for the upcoming summer after they encouragingly finished third in both the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup, Australia’s premier domestic first-class and List A competitions, respectively.
