Tim Paine opens up on how people around him reacted after he announced retirement

Recently former Australian Test captain, Tim Paine, has opened up on how people around him reacted after he announced his retirement from domestic cricket. Paine led Australia in 23 Test matches, taking over as captain in 2018 following the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town, South Africa. However, he stepped down as captain just before the start of the 2021-22 Ashes series after being accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a female colleague earlier in his career.

The 38-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman played his final domestic game for Tasmania against Queensland in the Sheffield Shield last week. Paine had not been offered a state contract but returned to play for Tasmania last year after retreating from the game for over a year following the sexting scandal that forced him to resign as Australia's Test captain. This is the first time Paine has spoken publicly since retiring from all forms of cricket.

My phone has been going berserk, from all around the world as well, which is nice. It's made me a bit emotional reading some of the messages and social media stuff people have sent. I came in the doors at Cricket Tasmania when I was 12 years old... 26 years ago, which is a long time, It's an emotional time when you move on from something that you love doing and you care deeply about, but I'll still be involved in the game of cricket

Paine made his debut in 2010 against Pakistan and played alongside Steve Smith. He played a vital role in helping Tasmania win their first Sheffield Shield title in 2006-07, playing alongside Damien Wright and Michael Di Venuto. Paine stated that retiring from cricket has been an emotional time for him but he added that he will continue to be involved in the game in a different capacity.

Tim Paine's career

Paine has represented Australia in 12 T20Is, 35 ODIs, and as many Test matches. He has scored 1534 runs in the longest format, 890 runs in 50-over cricket, and 82 runs in the shortest format at averages of 32.63, 27.81, and 10.25 respectively. He has nine half-centuries in Tests, five fifties, and one hundred in ODIs. Paine has not scored even a single century in Test cricket for Australia. Paine has also scored 154 first-class matches and has scored 6490 runs including 35 half-centuries and three hundreds. 

Image: AP