Tim Paine quits: Inside Cricket Australia’s investigation into Test captain’s sexting

How did Cricket Australia miss the lewd text messages? Why was it not made public in 2018? Should Paine have remained as captain? We reveal details of the investigation.

Cricket Australia’s investigation three years ago into Tim Paine’s sexting scandal failed to uncover all of the text messages that led to his resignation as Australian Test captain.

Paine, 36, sensationally quit as Test captain on Friday following a Herald Sun investigation revealing he sent lewd text messages.

Cricket Australia paid an external company to examine Paine’s phone which extracted all the data and searched for keywords and images.

But nothing was found from that analysis from the November 2017 ­exchange with the woman, who ­resigned from her job at Cricket Tasmania in 2018.

CA did have access to sections of the texts, which were supplied by Cricket Tasmania, but not the entire exchange or the images sent by Paine.

Paine was grilled by CA integrity chief Sean Carroll and legal counsel Christine Harman in Brisbane before jetting to England to lead the Aussies in a five-match ODI series, which England won 5-0.

Tim Paine’s lewd text messages were revealed by News Corp.

Paine received security escorts through Brisbane and Heathrow (London) airports for that tour after forgetting his passport.

The 36-year-old appointed an independent lawyer to attend his integrity interviews and several of the Tasmanian’s text messages were put to him by Carroll.

He confessed to the allegations, but said it was a text exchange between consenting adults. Unable to examine all of the phone evidence, investigators found no breach of the code of conduct.

It can also be revealed that the former Cricket Tasmania employee at the centre of the allegations was not ­interviewed and cricket sources say she declined to co-operate with the investigation or provide evidence of the texts.

Paine co-operated fully with the investigation and did not sugar-coat his involvement or deny that he had sent lewd content, which included a picture of his genitals.

Paine also chose to tell coach Justin Langer about the embarrassing incident.

The exchange took place four months before Paine was parachuted in as Test captain in the aftermath of Steve Smith’s sacking due to the sandpaper furore.

CA thoroughly examined the incident but concluded that the new skipper had not breached the sport’s code of conduct.

Tim Paine has re-signed as Test captain.

The findings were then relayed to the Cricket Australia board, which chose not to take action. It was not CA policy to ­release the findings of an investigation that had found no wrongdoing.

Chief executive James Sutherland and Kevin Roberts, who replaced Sutherland in October 2018, were also briefed on the incident while current chairman Richard Freudenstein and chief executive Nick Hockley on Saturday confirmed they were briefed on the historic case and how it was handled when they assumed their roles.

Former Foxtel chief executive Freudenstein was appointed to CA’s board in June, 2019, while Hockley was installed as interim chief executive in June, 2020 before winning the gig permanently in May this year.

Freudenstein on Saturday admitted his board would not have reached the same conclusion as the board in 2018.

“While I cannot speak about the original decision-making in 2018, what I can say is that faced with the same circumstances, and with the benefit of all relevant information about this matter, Cricket Australia would not make the same decisions today,” he said.

“I acknowledge that the decision clearly sent the wrong message to the sport, to the community and to Tim – that this kind of behaviour is acceptable and without serious consequences.”

Former Australia ODI and Twenty20 player Dirk Nannes questioned why CA kept quiet at the time.

“How guilty is Cricket Australia in trying to keep this hush-hush, and trying to keep the image of its captain as clean as possible?” Nannes said on ABC radio.

“It reeks of an organisation that’s on the back foot after the Newlands (ball tampering) scandal, trying to cover up and make sure there weren’t two fallouts of an Australian captain in quick succession.”

Originally published as Tim Paine quits: Inside Cricket Australia’s investigation into Test captain’s sexting