"I was broken at the time" - Tim Paine reflects on his time after the texting scandal came to light 

Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has opened up about the harrowing time for him and his family while away from the sport.

The 37-year-old stepped down from the captaincy role after allegations against him pertaining to sending inappropriate messages to a female co-worker at Tasmania Cricket resurfaced.

Following Paine's resignation right before the 2021-22 Ashes, Cricket Australia (CA) decided to appoint Pat Cummins as the new Test captain. The keeper-batter spent a long time away from the sport and only recently made a return through the ongoing Sheffield Shield.

Recalling that he was in a bad state of mind after his past incidents came to light, Paine told Peter Lalor, who wrote his autobiography titled "The Price Paid: A Story of Life, Cricket and Lessons Learned", slated to be released next week:

“You think the whole cricket thing is your life until it is not and then you’re like, ‘,What else have I got?’ and you ­haven’t got that either (cricket or marriage). That was a kick in the guts."

Paine continued:

“That period of my life, our life, still upsets me. I don’t like talking about it, I don’t like going back over it. It was bloody hard, but it was harder to see Bonnie trying to deal with it … it wasn’t because of her actions, she was within her rights to do that at that stage and I would probably have done the same."

Paine was initially found guilty of sending inappropriate messages and pictures to Cricket Tasmania employee Renee Ferguson in 2017, on the eve of the first Ashes Test at The Gabba.

Claiming that it was a rough time being away from cricket, he reflected on a moment he had in his garage at home:

“I was broken at the time. One day I was in the garage and I saw the Cricket Australia bag on the shelf and the Tasmanian one next to it and became overcome by the urge to throw them out. Everything went – but fortunately my club kit was in another room and it survived.”

Paine's return to cricket has not panned out as he would have hoped for. Featuring for Tasmania in the ongoing Sheffield Shield, he has managed to score only 37 runs in three innings so far. But he has had an active time behind the stumps with the gloves.

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"When I took a step back it is ridiculous that I couldn’t see how selfish I was" - Tim Paine

Paine was touted for big things after he made his first-class debut as a 20-year-old in 2005. He went on to make his maiden appearance for Australia in 2009 in an ODI against Scotland and soon featured for the Test side as well.

He was touted to take the place of Brad Haddin, who occupied the role of first-choice wicketkeeper. However, a finger injury derailed his career trajectory. The left-handed batter was even prompted to abandon his cricket career and take a job in sales.

In Hindisght, Paine failed to understand how he did not think that he was being selfish in this scenario and added:

“I never thought I wasn’t putting my wife and family first, but when I took a step back it is ridiculous that I couldn’t see how selfish I was, how much in my own bubble I was."

He concluded by saying:

“I don’t know if I could play international cricket the way I am now, maybe I would be better, but I have always been the sort of person who thought they needed to be fully immersed, that’s the way I’ve done it. I didn’t know any other way.”

Paine has represented Australia in 35 Tests, 35 ODIs and 12 T20Is.

Do you think the veteran wicket-keeper will ever be called up to the Australian first-team? Let us know what you think.

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