During the series in South Africa, Paine said Australia was “provoked” by rowdy mobs abusing players’ families, with Warner a particular target.
“I do not know how [Warner] kept his cool in these situations and upon reflection I feel the team let him down by not offering him more support,” Paine wrote. “I can see now that he was masking a lot of pain and we should have known that.”
“They hung me up to dry”
Paine also accused Cricket Australia of leaving him ‘hanging out to dry’ after Explicit SMS who ultimately cost him the top job were about to go public.
In a telephone conversation with Cricket Australia’s chief executive – England’s Nick Hockley – Paine said an unnamed public relations official had taken the lead, urging him to step down as captain.
“We did a phone link that included this person they had hired from a PR firm who had apparently given advice to the board in the past,” he wrote, describing a conference call that took place. took place a day before the sexting scandal became public. .
“He said he’s been in the newspaper game for many years and it’s going to be huge and it’s not going away.
“I found it very strange that this person, someone I had never met and someone who did not work at Cricket Australia, took the lead on the call while Nick, the managing director, s sat in the back.
“The consultant then said that the best way to move forward with the story was to step down as captain. I was stunned by that.
“I felt they were motivated by the need to protect their image…they were hanging me up to dry.”
Paine was cleared of wrongdoing in relation to an exchange of text messages with a Cricket Tasmania colleague in 2017 by a Cricket Australia investigation the following year. He maintains that the exchange was consensual.
“I was ready to face criticism for what I did but in my mind Cricket Australia had let me down and made it look like they thought I had sexually harassed someone” , he wrote.
After stepping down as captain and taking time off from the game, Paine has now returned to play for Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield.
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