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Australian cricket is at war just two weeks before the Ashes after Tasmania launched an impassioned defence of disgraced Tim Paine.
The home state of former captain Paine, who resigned on Friday when it emerged he sent sexually explicit messages to an employee of Cricket Tasmania four years ago, said he had been ‘treated appallingly’.
Tasmania chairman Andrew Gaggin added that there was growing anger towards Cricket Australia over their handling of a man he described as ‘a beacon’ who was instrumental in ‘salvaging the reputation of the national team’ after Sandpapergate.
Disgraced former Australia captain Tim Paine (centre) played for Tasmania's second XI against South Australia on Monday days after he resigned in shame following a sexting scandal
Paine has issued a public and emotional apology to his wife Bonnie after his sexting scanda
Paine, 36, sent a photo of his penis to a female co-worker along with a stream of lewd text messages
After a board meeting unanimously reiterated support for Paine, Gaggin said: ‘It is clear that the anger among the Tasmanian cricket community and general public is palpable.
‘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 between two mature adults that was not repeated.’
Paine, 36, was appointed captain in March 2018, four months after the text exchange, and kept his post after an inquiry three months later when he was cleared by both Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania after a complaint by the woman involved. But CA chairman Richard Freudenstein, who was not in
