Tim Paine has fired back at Cricket Australia executives by saying they “held a gun to my head” to to force him to quit as Test captain last year.
Paine’s new book, The Price Paid, lifts the lid on how CA initially cleared him of wrongdoing in what he described as a consensual exchange with a Cricket Tasmania employee before then doing a U-turn when a PR consultant recommended he should be removed from the captaincy.
He also turned the tables on South Africa, accusing them of ball tampering in the match after the infamous Sandpapergate incident of 2018.
In excerpts from the book published by NewsCorp – the same media organisation which broke the story of his sexting scandal which led to his resignation in the lead-up to last year’s Ashes series, Paine accused CA chief executive Nick Hockley of lacking the courage to sack him.
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“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.
Tim Paine on day one of his return to first-class cricket with Tasmania. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
“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.
“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.
“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. I knew what had happened. Cricket Australia knew what had happened and in my mind this guy didn’t know, or worse than that, it was like he believed that I had sexually harassed her.”
Paine added that Hockley then chimed in to say the veteran keeper should take heed of the consultant’s advice.
“I said, ‘Do you want me to resign as Test captain, Nick?’ He couldn’t give me a straight answer, or wouldn’t. He kept talking around in circles.”
“It was becoming obvious what Cricket Australia wanted me to do but they didn’t have the courage to say it themselves, they were letting their hired consultant run the show.
“They’d held a gun to my head. I couldn’t go on without their support.”
Paine is up front in the book that he does not want sympathy from anyone for his actions which he described as a selfish indiscretion which has had lasting ramifications for his family life.
He took an extended break from cricket following the revelations late last year and has only recently returned to first-class cricket with Tasmania, playing in the Sheffield Shield.
His chances of returning to the Test team were slim anyway but after making these explosive allegations, it is hard to see Paine ever being recalled even if current gloveman Alex Carey was unavailable.
He played the last of his 35 Tests in the loss to India at the Gabba at the start of last year and given that he will turn 38 next month, Paine will probably retire from all cricket within the next year.
While again taking aim at CA for hanging David Warner, Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith out to dry for the Sandpapergate scandal, he claimed he saw the Proteas tampering with the ball in the fourth Test of the series when Paine was hastily installed as skipper when Smith was banned.
He said claims that the entire Australian team was involved in the ball-tampering scheme were “rubbish” and pointed the finger at the Proteas.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
“Everyone out there was shocked when they looked up on the big screen and saw Cameron Bancroft with a piece of sandpaper in his hand. I was stunned. We all were.
“My heart sank, I was thinking, ‘What the f—?’ A sense of dread came over us all.
“On reflection all three of them should have had more support. Maybe we could have done more as a group or organisation, not enough people put themselves in their shoes.
“I saw it happen in the fourth Test of that series,” he wrote in accusing South Africa of manipulating the ball. “Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry-on.
“I was standing at the bowler’s end in the next Test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball. The television director, who had played an active role in catching out Cam, immediately pulled the shot off the screen.
“We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we’d been slaughtered and were convinced they’d been up to it since the first Test. But the footage got lost. As it would.”
Cameron Bancroft and David Warner. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
His opposing captain that day, Faf du Plessis, has coincidentally just released a book of his own in which he claimed Australia had been tampering with the ball long before the Cape Town Test of 2018.
In “Faf: Through Fire”, he revealed his team started spying on the Australians in the field.
“We suspected that someone had been nurturing the ball too much to get it to reverse so wildly, and we watched the second Test at St George’s through binoculars, so that we could follow the ball more closely while Australia was fielding.
“When we noticed that the ball was going to David Warner quite often.
“There was a visible difference between how Mitchell Starc got the ball to reverse in the first Test in Durban and the final Test in Johannesburg. We now know that there was an obvious reason for that.”
Nobody likes a smarta*s
Roar Rookie
Why did you come back to cricket Tim? “I just thought I would stick it out a bit longer”
Nobody likes a smarta*s
Roar Rookie
Stop trying to create a sub-story Paine, directing attention from your poor behavior. When you wrote the book did you take any advice from experts???
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
So…….no evidence of him being complicit (at worst) in a coverup to advance himself to the Captaincy? All we have is your opinion that he shows no remorse for what he admitted he did? That’s enough? Mate, basing opinions on facts would be brilliant if 14yo were taught it, it might develop critical thinking, rather than espousing theories and then demanding others agree, but have zero ability to argue the theory, without puerile character assassination. I find it fascinating that we aren’t allowed to accept a persons word now, we have to have the assertions of 5 minute experts. Thats enough, just cos…! Sad stuff!
Kalva
Roar Rookie
Think CA wanted him gone after the disastrous series loss vs India but weren't brave enough to pull the trigger themselves. This was the perfect excuse and they took it...the Test team has improved since then. Had he been an outstanding captain with outstanding behavior on the field when under pressure then, he probably would have survived. He wasn't and paid the price.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Can you fire me links to Paine being complicit in a coverup of his actions, so he could become Australian captain? I said naive at best and complicit at worst. Do you know what this means? It means I don't know. He could simply have thought he got away with it, or he could have been an active participant in it being buried. Either way... it happened. I'm not going to play your silly game of "please find internet sources". I am not 14 and this is not Reddit. All we have is Paine's own lack or remorse for doing what he did, just regret for being caught. That's enough.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Can you fire me links to Paine being complicit in a coverup of his actions, so he could become Australian captain? Was that him, or Cricket Tasmania, or both who created the coverup? Or another party? I've read a bit of historical info, prior to him being on the Captaincy radar, albeit hard to find actual source facts, not media opinion. Your links would be appreciated, I like to have as much info from different points to inform my opinions.
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
the old adage is ignore everything before "but" or "however", if you read Paine's comments in that way its all whinging, "unfair" etc, i especially like where he said he could have played on till he was 40
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
When I was a little girl in Poland, I had a pony!
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
I'm not disagreeing with you about past sins but the point is it wasn't a character assassination. It was a cover up. He did the wrong thing, he got caught, and it was hushed up. He was then (and this is the big mistake) offered the Australian captainship. Trotted out as Captain Squeaky Clean. It's not crowd bullying. What happened to Warner and Smith (and Bancroft) is crowd bullying. They did their time, they apoplogised to the public and fans, they were truly regretful, and yet there is no forgiveness for them. In Paine's case... if he was truly regretful and of character he wouldn't have participated in the cover up. He wouldn't have accepted the position. He was naive at best and complicit at worst to know this wouldn't come back to haunt him. Either makes him a poor choice. Nobody could say they haven't made mistakes... but there's a difference between owning your mistakes and just being bitter you got caught. Paine comes across as bitter. "Held a gun to my head". Come on man.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Strange times! Your future actions apparently aren't considered representative of growth, contrition, or whatever it is the casual observer believes a transgressor must do to appease every other individuals 'morals'! Apparently you are held accountable in perpetuity, not only for your actions, but the sins of your father and multiple generations going all the way back to neolithic times. I wonder how many individuals would stand up to the rampant character assassination imported into Australia in the last couple of years and now firmly entrenched in Australia's sporting institutions? It's nothing more than crowd bullying, which most of the individuals couldn't resist, but more importantly, couldn't honestly say there isn't something in their background they atoned for by word or deed.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
While you are at it can you get me Susanna Hoffs, Zooey Deschanel and Olga Kurylenko …… ooh, and Sophie Marceau. ——– Chrissie had a _smulder_ and secret fire for sure.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Consenting adults though. Doesn't necessarily make it completely OK, but he shouldn't have been hung out to dry like he was. If those standards were applied to Warney he wouldn't have played 10 tests.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Yeah only a naive fool would think scuffing the ball isn’t common practice in cricket . Heck I used to do myself. :shocked:
Clear as mud
Guest
the Ethics review and the absolute disgust of everyone except CA with CA... too soon forgotten even tho redacted, it's a good sober read 4 years on. good method well applied too. put sandpaper to the side and see what has changed... and what never will
Clear as mud
Guest
oi!
Clear as mud
Guest
like i said elsewhere, it sounds like there is deep doo-doo done between him, Boucher and the Smith boy. but that's not interesting.....?
Clear as mud
Guest
you had me worried for a bit there!
Clear as mud
Guest
well i will give you that one. brilliant woman. the bomb. too soon gone : (
Censored Often
Roar Rookie
An emloyer pretty much sacks someone for sending a colleague dick pics. Who'd have seen that result coming....
Riccardo
Roar Rookie
NZ? Chris Pringle got outed with a bottle Cap in the 90s. Crowe knew about it too. They claimed the Pakis were doing it too and needed to generate reverse to compete. Everyone does it.. or did. Cameras make it harder to get away with now, perhaps. As to the South Africa/Australia series and Australia's claim it was the 1st time and only those caught were responsible? Chris Gaffaney reckons it was going on in the 1st 2 Tests too, and that both teams were doing it. CA's stand around the miscreants being the only culprits, and this the only time, is laughable...