Cricket Australia's treatment of Tim Paine has been appalling, says Cricket Tasmania chairman Andrew Gaggin

The Australia Test team has been in turmoil due to recent occurrences. Test captain Tim Paine has resigned from captaincy, following a sexting scandal, and the team has little time to announce a new captain to lead them in the upcoming home Ashes series. Paine's decision came after his sexually explicit text messages to a former female colleague at Cricket Tasmania in 2017 were revealed recently. 

Cricket Tasmania has now come out in support of the wicketkeeper-batsman, saying he has been a beacon for Cricket Australia over the past four years. Chairman Andrew Gaggin also said that Cricket Australia treated Paine in an appalling way.

"In conversations I have had in recent days it is clear that the anger amongst the Tasmania cricket community and general public is palpable," Gaggin said in a statement.

"Tim Paine has been a beacon for Australian cricket over the past four years and instrumental in salvaging the reputation of the national team after the calamity of Cape Town.”

"The treatment afforded to the Australian Test captain by Cricket Australia has been appalling, and the worst since Bill Lawry over 50 years ago."

Gaggin also said that Paine should not have been put in a position where he felt the need to resign.

"At a time when CA should have supported Tim, he was evidently regarded as dispensable.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 that occurred between two mature adults and was not repeated,” he explained. 

Pat Cummins is the frontrunner in the race to be Australia's next Test captain, ahead of the home Ashes series, beginning December 8 in Brisbane.