{"id":162454,"date":"2021-11-20T01:29:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T02:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=162454"},"modified":"2021-11-20T03:58:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T03:58:18","slug":"paine-sexting-saga-stinks-of-a-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=162454","title":{"rendered":"Paine sexting saga 'stinks of a cover up'"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Willis is a senior producer and presenter for 2GB. Tune in next week as he discusses the Paine case on air.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Tim Paine<\/a> has made the right call resigning as Australian captain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Make no mistake – he wasn't pushed off the edge, he did not want this embarrassing story becoming the focus on the eve of the Ashes. I don't think there's any way he could've stayed.<\/p>\n

It's now also in the best interests of the team for another wicketkeeper to be brought in.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> England rejoices after Paine's shock resignation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Lingering Paine problem that won't go away<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But, there are parts of this story that set a disturbing precedent in our media landscape. Firstly, spare a thought for Paine's wife Bonnie and their family. I can only imagine the pain and hurt this saga is causing.<\/p>\n

There is also an unnamed woman involved here who clearly feels this issue is unresolved.<\/p>\n

\"Waugh<\/p>\n

It's a mess – but the timeline here is important.<\/p>\n

Paine had engaged in frequent communication with the unnamed woman for 12 months. As part of these exchanges – he sent an explicit picture to her in November 2017.<\/p>\n

At this stage, Paine had only just completed a remarkable return to the Test team after years of injury and bad luck, and no complaint was made when the photo was sent.<\/p>\n

Paine was then appointed Test captain in March 2018 after the ball tampering saga in South Africa, a few months before several things took place.<\/p>\n

The lady involved, who was an employee of Cricket Tasmania, was charged with theft. It was only then she launched a complaint about Paine's messages.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gus breaks silence over leaked photo gaffe<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Players union says Paine shouldn't have quit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Both Cricket Australia and Cricket Tasmania launched investigations.<\/p>\n

Because of the "consensual nature" of the exchanges, Paine was exonerated. I have no doubt he's been wondering over the last four years if this story would eventually come out.<\/p>\n

Finally it has, after the texts were shopped around to several media outlets.<\/p>\n

\"Paine\u00a0resigns\u00a0in\u00a0pre-Ashes\u00a0bombshell\"<\/p>\n

Let me repeat – now this is in the public space – he had to go. But Cricket Australia has a lot of explaining to do.<\/p>\n

The code's image was in the toilet after the events of Cape Town in 2018, and Paine as the new captain had promised to clean things up.<\/p>\n

Now, Suddenly, he's being investigated over claims of "unwarranted sexting".<\/p>\n

Even though he was cleared – it stinks of a cover up. The last thing CA needed at the time was revelations the new skipper had sent "unwelcome" R-Rated photos to a lady.<\/p>\n

So it was kept quiet, which speaks volumes about the people in charge.<\/p>\n

\"Paine\u00a0announces\u00a0resignation\u00a0from\u00a0captaincy\"<\/p>\n

The people who created the toxic culture that resulted in players rubbing sandpaper on the ball.<\/p>\n

Tim Paine and Justin Langer have since turned things around – the team's culture has improved and in my opinion they are much easier to support.<\/p>\n

Given the circumstances, I think Paine has done a remarkable job, and I believe he is a good person who has made a stupid decision.<\/p>\n

But I think we can agree that if the text messages had been published at the time- Paine would've enjoyed one of the shortest captaincies ever.<\/p>\n

It was a ticking time bomb that finally exploded on Friday.<\/p>\n

He said in his statement that "on reflection my actions in 2017 don't meet the standard of an Australian cricket captain."<\/p>\n

I'm sorry, but the entire thing stinks.<\/p>\n

The cover up needs to be investigated. Cricket fans deserve better.<\/p>\n

We have a team of outstanding individuals who continue to be dragged down by incompetence from the top.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Willis is a senior producer and presenter for 2GB. Tune in next week as he discusses the Paine case on air. Tim Paine has […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162456,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162454\/revisions\/162456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}