Tim Paine Slams Cricket Australia CEO In New Autobiography

Tim Paine has revealed he felt “abandoned” by Cricket Australia after a newly hired public relations consultant took charge in a conversation that ultimately led to his resignation as Test captain.

Paine stepped down as skipper and took leave from the game in the wake of a historical sexting scandal from 2017 which became public last November and slammed Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Nick Hockley in his new autobiography, The Price Paid, for taking a “back seat” while the unnamed PR boss called the shots.

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“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,” Paine wrote.

“The consultant then said that the best way to get ahead of the story was if I stood down as captain.

“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.

Paine said he was able to read between the lines, and knew CA wanted him to make the decision to step down, rather than the sporting body make the decision to take the honours off the Tasmanian.

He added that had he hadn’t stepped down, he had a “feeling” CA would eventually make the call to “protect their image”.

“They’d held a gun to my head,” he said.

“I couldn’t go on without their support.”

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