'Cricket Australia had abandoned me' - Tim Paine on resignation after sexting episode

Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Tim Paine has broken his silence on his resignation last November, saying that Cricket Australia (CA) abandoned him after the infamous sexting scandal. Paine was all set to lead the Aussies in the 2021-22 Ashes series against arch-rivals England before the incident came to light and changed his fate.

The former Test skipper made these shocking revelations in his autobiography titled, 'The Paid Price'. Paine also recalled a telephone conversation meeting with the then CA CEO Nick Hockley and an anonymous PR consultant of the national cricket board after which he realised that he no had the board's backing to lead the team once the story was out.

"We did a phone link which included this person they'd hired from a public relations firm who'd apparently given advice to the board in the past," Paine wrote in his book. "He said that he'd been in the newspaper game for many years and this was going to be huge and would not go away. I found it very strange that this person, someone I'd never met and someone who did not work at Cricket Australia, took the lead in the call while Nick, the chief executive, took a back seat", Tim Paine wrote. 

"The consultant then said that the best way to get ahead of the story was if I stood down as captain. I was stunned by that, so was James. Who was this guy? What did he know about the circumstances? That was the first time anyone had mentioned me resigning as captain. There was no way I was doing that," he added.

At the same time, Tim Paine also lashed out at CA for making him a scapegoat just to save their image from getting tarnished.

"I felt they were driven by the need to protect their image, they'd got in someone to look after them and he'd decided that I had to be sacrificed to save them, they were hanging me out to dry. The board had met that night and it was clear to me that they wanted to cut and run. I think that's why they got Nick and the consultant to call me".

The veteran stumper was accused by a receptionist working with Cricket Tasmania for sending vulgar texts back in 2017. Paine was found guilty after a detailed investigation was done by Cricket Australia. Apart from resigning as the Australian Test captain, Paine also took an indefinite break from the game following the incident citing mental healtjh reasons and has not donned the Test jersey for the national team since then. He was succeeded by star pacer Pat Cummins who led the Aussies to a historic 4-0 triumph in the Ashes.