Michael Clarke slams Cricket Australia over its handling of Tim Paine's sexting scandal

Michael Clarke has slammed the cricket governing body of Australia, Cricket Australia(CA) for the poor handling of Tim Paine, on the texting scandal with a former Cricket Tasmania female employee in 2017. Paine announced his resignation from the captaincy role of the Test team, after his private text exchange with the lady was made public last week. As the events unfolded, CA's chairman Richard Freudstein and CEO Nick Hockley in an official statement said that they would have removed Paine from the captaincy role, if there were in charge in 2018. The board earlier cleared Paine of any breach of conduct after an investigation in 2018.

Meanwhile, speaking about the matter on Big Sports Breakfast, the 2015 ICC ODI World Cup-winning captain Clarke questioned CA’s accountability citing, the board should have backed Paine for an off-field issue. He also stated that if the board digs into every detail of a new captain, they wouldn’t have anyone who is completely clean. Explaining the same on Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke said, “ Where is the backing of the player as well? You’ll be looking for 15 years (if you want a captain who hasn’t done anything wrong), we won’t have a captain."

Michael Clarke on Ricky Ponting

Clarke then went on to cite the example of legendary Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, who has off-field troubles in the early years of his international career. Citing Ponting’s stature as Australia’s one of the greatest captains, Clarke said, “Go back in my time even to Ricky Ponting. If that’s the case, he never would have captained Australia. He had a punch up in the middle of a Bourbon & Beefsteak. Are you not going to give him the job because of that? He’s a great example. He’s shown you how time, experience, maturity, playing at the highest level and even the captaincy turned him around."

Who will be next Test captain of Australia?

Meanwhile, with the Ashes 2021 set to begin on 8 December, CA is on the lookout for its new skipper. As reported by Fox Sports, Pat Cummins and former skipper Steve Smith were interviewed by a special committee for the captaincy role in the wake of Paine’s resignation. At the same time, Paine’s inclusion in the playing XI for the first Test match at Gabba still remains doubtful as the cricket governing body is yet to reveal its plans.

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