Cricket Tasmania unhappy with CA's 'appalling' treatment towards Tim Paine

Cricket Australia’s treatment towards Tim Paine hasn’t gone down well with Andrew Gaggin, who’s the Chairman of Cricket Tasmania. The 36-year-old Paine, recently, stepped down as Australia’s Test captain in the wake of the sexting scandal, involving him and a former female colleague from 2017.

Despite the heavy backlash by the entire cricketing fraternity, as well as the media, the Tasmanian seems to have got the much-needed support and backing of the chairman of his state team. Gaggin even branded Paine’s treatment by Cricket Australia as “appalling”.

Although the keeper-batter insisted on the fact that he wasn’t pushed out or being ill-treated, the chairman of Cricket Tasmania felt that Cricket Australia should have shown more loyalty towards him. The fact that the development has surfaced just a few weeks before the commencement of the Ashes makes the situation even more chaotic. The new Test skipper of Australia is yet to be announced.

The anger in the community concerning the treatment of Tim Paine by CA was “palpable”, feels Cricket Tasmania

Gaggin didn’t sound happy with the manner CA has treated Tim Paine over the last one week. “In conversations I have had in recent days it is clear that the anger amongst the Tasmanian cricket community and general public is palpable,” Gaggin said in a statement, Cricbuzz reported. He also lauded the former Aussie Test skipper for being instrumental in “salvaging the reputation” of the national team.

“Tim Paine has been a beacon for Australian cricket over the past four years and instrumental in salvaging the reputation of the national team after the calamity of Cape Town. Yet, at a time when CA should have supported Tim, he was regarded as dispensable,” he said.

Gaggin slammed Paine’s treatment by CA as the worst since Bill Lawry over 50 years ago. Lawry was the first Aussie Test skipper to be dropped from a team midway through the 1970-71 series against England. Back then, Lawry got to know about his omission from the reporters rather than the team management.

The Cricket Tasmania chairman said Paine “should not have been put in a position where he felt the need to resign over an incident that was determined by an independent inquiry at the time to not be a breach of the code of conduct”.

Back in 2018, Paine became Australia’s 46th Test captain post the sandpaper-gate, which saw the then Aussie Test captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner being forced to step down from their posts.

As far as Paine is concerned, on the eve and morning of the first Ashes Test in 2017, he sent explicit messages to a then colleague at Cricket Tasmania. Cricket Australia, however, became aware of this incident only in March 2018. What followed was a subsequent investigation that found there had been no breach of the CA’s Code of Conduct.