{"id":233901,"date":"2022-08-22T05:45:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T05:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=233901"},"modified":"2022-08-22T10:57:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T10:57:57","slug":"tarnished-ex-test-captains-shock-comeback-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=233901","title":{"rendered":"Tarnished ex-Test captain's shock comeback bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's former Test captain Tim Paine<\/a> could return to first-class cricket after joining practice with Tasmania's state squad as an uncontracted player.<\/p>\n

Paine tearfully quit as Australia captain<\/a> in November ahead of the home Ashes series against England after revelations of a scandal involving the sending of inappropriate texts to a female co-worker<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

He subsequently took an indefinite mental health break from the game.<\/p>\n

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Cricket Tasmania on Monday said 37-year-old Paine was back at practice and would make his return to competition with his club in the state's domestic league. Tasmania's first four-day game in the Sheffield Shield begins October 6.<\/p>\n

Ricky Ponting, another former Australia captain from the Apple Isle, has previously said he'd like Paine to play for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Paine has already made one successful career comeback. After struggling with a finger injury that restricted his international career to four away Test matches in 2010, Paine had been considering retirement in 2017 before being drafted back into Australia's squad as first-choice wicketkeeper.<\/p>\n

He was elevated to the Test captaincy in 2018 following the Sandpapergate scandal in South Africa, where three Australian players were banned for 12 months for tampering with the ball during a match in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

He played 35 Tests and scored 1534 runs at an average of 32.63, with 150 catches and seven stumpings.<\/p>\n

Paine suddenly exited the scene in disgrace but is now nearly ready to return, according to Tasmanian bowler Riley Meredith.<\/p>\n

"He's really enjoying it which, I think, is the main thing for him," Meredith said.<\/p>\n

"Just coming back and really enjoying being around the guys again and training and just enjoying his cricket, which is good to see."<\/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<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's former Test captain Tim Paine could return to first-class cricket after joining practice with Tasmania's state squad as an uncontracted player. Paine tearfully quit […]<\/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\/233901"}],"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=233901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233903,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233901\/revisions\/233903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}