Australian cricket in the past few weeks has been in the news for wrong reasons as the latest sexting scandal of Tim Paine which circulated on social media prompted him to leave his captaincy in the longest format of the game with Steve Smith and Pat Cummins are likely successors to become next leader of Australia who will be leading this side in a five-match Ashes Test series against England.
As per the latest media reports, these two are interviewed by 5 member panel to decide who will be the 47th test captain of India as Cummins who is the current vice-captain can lead the side, and considering his workload as a fast bowler he would not be playing all five matches in that situation someone like Smith who has prior captaincy experience can lead the side in Cummins absence.
However, Cricket Tasmania has slammed the board for mishandling Tim Paine’s case quite blindly as for those who don’t know the background of this incident which happened in 2017 where Paine send obscene messages to Female worker and for his conduct he even apologized in 2018 and the investigation ended but suddenly it reappeared in 2021 ahead of important five-match Ashes series clearly indicates that even CA doesn’t want Paine to lead Australian test side anymore.
“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 evidently regarded as dispensable. The treatment afforded to the Australian Test captain by CA has been appalling, and the worst since Bill Lawry 50 years ago,” the Cricket Tasmania chairman said in the statement.
“The Cricket Tasmania Board reaffirmed its view that 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 and was a consensual and private exchange that occurred between two mature adults and was not repeated.”
Paine as a player is available for selection for a first Test match which will start on December 8th 2021 in Brisbane.
