Ashes 2021-22 | The decision to keep the Tim Paine controversy in-house was supported by Cricket Australia, reveals Mark Taylor
Former Australia skipper Mark Taylor has revealed that the decision to keep Tim Paine’s texting controversy in-house was supported by the cricket board. Taylor, who was also the board member, added that the decision was taken in the interest of Paine, his wife and the Cricket Tasmania employee.
The wicket-keeper batsman exchanged lewd and graphically explicit with the Cricket Tasmania employee in 2017. A committee was set-up in 2018 and they cleared him of misconduct in 2018. In a recent interview, he revealed that he knew the controversy would come out in the public domain. He has resigned from the captaincy following the emergence of the controversy. Meanwhile, Taylor, who resigned from the board following the sandpaper gate in November 2018 has said that there has been a lot of conjecture about the rights and wrongs of that.
"A decision was taken by the integrity unit and supported by the board to keep this in house. There's obviously been a lot of conjecture about the rights and wrongs of that.
"That decision was made not just on what is best for cricket, but what was best for Tim Paine, Bonnie Paine and also the woman involved," Taylor told Nine's Sports Sunday.
On Saturday, CA chairperson Richard Freudenstein said that if he was in office in 2018, he wouldn’t have retained Paine as captain. Reacting to the statement, the former Australia skipper said that hindsight is a wonderful thing.
"Three-and-a-half or four years of hindsight is a wonderful thing. I don't know if he has any more information, that the integrity unit had of Cricket Australia in 2018. It's interesting to note that even now, having said that...they didn't stand Tim down. He stood down, he resigned himself," said the former Aussie skipper.