‘Absolutely horrendous’: Reactions to Tim Paine quitting Australia Test captaincy over ‘sexting’ scandal – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Tim Paine abruptly quit as Australian Test cricket captain on Friday over an explicit “private text exchange” with a female colleague in 2017 — a bombshell announcement just weeks before the Ashes series begins against arch-rivals England.

In her correspondence with Cricket Australia, the woman had said she was offended by “Mr Paine’s sexually explicit, unwelcome and unsolicited photograph of his genitals in addition to the graphic sexual comments”.

Paine took over the Test captaincy in 2018 in the wake of the Sandpaper-gate ball tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket.

Previous captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were forced to step down for their roles trying to alter the ball with sandpaper during a Cape Town Test.

They were suspended for a year from all cricket and stripped of their leadership roles, paving the way for Paine to take up the captaincy.

Cricket Australia chair Richard Freudenstein confirmed that it had investigated Paine’s matter at the time and found that there was no wrongdoing.

A few months later selectors went on to appoint Paine as captain of the scandal-ridden team regardless.

Twitter users were left shocked how Cricket Australia cleared the cricketer of any breach of CA’s code of conduct. The cricket board has now come under severe criticism for appointing Paine Australia captain despite being aware of the whole issue.

Here are the reactions:

How on earth did CA conclude this didn’t break the Code of Conduct?!?#TimPaine

— Brett McKay (@BMcSport) November 19, 2021

The Tim Paine saga is another reminder to sporting bodies that keeping a scandal or an issue of this nature on the hush-hush never makes it go away. It only makes it much worse and more sinister when it inevitably surfaces

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) November 19, 2021

Tim Paine’s conduct was shameful. But here is the bigger question. Cricket Australia did a private investigation into this in 2017 and exonerated Paine. They continued to build him as the poster boy of Aussie reform. https://t.co/O4uAW9HA8q

— cricBC (@cricBC) November 19, 2021

This is absolutely horrendous. Not least because Paine is married #timpaine #CricketAustralia https://t.co/UvUUS6pF4K

— Aden-Jay Wood (@AJWood16) November 19, 2021

So from what I can gather, CA knew about this four years ago – still made Paine captain, and promoted him as the squeaky clean saviour of Australian cricket? #TimPaine #Ashes

— Akash Fotedar (@akashfotedar5) November 19, 2021

They made #TimPaine captain AFTER these sexts. And he was held up@as a paragon of virtue. One of the ‘good guys’. Cricket Australia has a lot to answer for. Terrible..#TheAshes

— Hemant (@hemantbuch) November 19, 2021

I was really hoping the Australian cricket team would go at least a few more years without another earth shattering scandal #timpaine #theashes

— Jacinta Lee (@jacinta_lee3) November 19, 2021

Shane Warne…#TimPaine Paine…sexting… Captaincy.. the legacy continues

— Vimal Kumar/विमल कुमार (@Vimalwa) November 19, 2021

Cricket Tasmania ran an investigation that revealed it was consensual.

Not harassment *according to that investigation*.

But CA probably knew this ages ago. They still kept promoting Paine – as the man who would lift their image. https://t.co/TRJv1vepjy pic.twitter.com/U3RG7S60pV

— Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) November 19, 2021

So, a (not so) nice guy was leading the side for 4 years #TimPaine

— Yash Lahoti (@YvLahoti) November 19, 2021

‘This is sexual harrasment’

Catching up on the #TimPaine story. Folks saying there was consent, hence a clean chit. But the lady took it up with officials later – surely not for nothing? There’s more to the story, but if it’s lack of consent, that is abuse. Simple. Things not looking too great for Oz here

— Suprita Das (@MissDasTweets) November 19, 2021

This is not a “sexting scandal”.

This is sexual harassment. https://t.co/3LOUDvQAUv pic.twitter.com/R9W8Gc5tAG

— Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) November 19, 2021

With AFP inputs