Tim Paine says Cricket Australia 'abandoned' him during scandal; 'The reality was they...'

Via his autobiography, former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has explained how he was abandoned by the country's cricketing board after the sexting scandal. As a result of the scandal, the 37-year-old was forced to resign as the skipper of the side. The scandal involved him sending sexual messages to a female employee of Cricket Tasmania in 2017.

Tim Paine feels abandoned by Cricket Australia

Speaking of how he felt abandoned by Cricket Australia, Tim Paine explained in his autobiography, "I was disappointed and I was tired of this. I was prepared to cop the flak for what I did, but in my mind, Cricket Australia had abandoned me and made it look like they thought I'd sexually harassed someone, so everyone else would think so too."

He added, "The reality was they were happy to defend me and accept I hadn't breached their code of conduct as long as it was kept private. If the story hadn't run, I would still be captain and if Cricket Australia had handled it like they said they would I would still be playing for Australia."

The sexting scandal became such a huge controversy that the 37-year-old has both started and ended his book with the text messages he had sent. The autobiography opens with Paine recalling when the messages were originally sent and when the complaint against him was made.

Paine also went on to explain in his autobiography how it was evident that Cricket Australia wanted him to resign even though the cricketing board did not have the 'courage' to tell him directly. "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 in circles. It was becoming obvious what Cricket Australia wanted me to do but they didn't have the courage to say it themselves," explained the former Australian Test skipper.

"I hadn't seen it coming," added Paine. "It was obvious the board wanted me to resign and I had no option if they weren't going to back me. I felt they were driven by the need to protect their image, they'd got in someone to look after them and he'd decided that I had to be sacrificed to save them, they were hanging me out to dry."