How has Tim Paine become the victim?

Tim Paine waits to bat in a Tasmania second XI match in Hobart on Tuesday

Just like that, Tim Paine has somehow become the victim.

Paine, the guy that sent an unsolicited picture of his penis to a woman and she in turn complained, is the one Cricket Tasmania is saying we should be feeling sorry for.

Cricket Tasmania made it official with a press statement on Tuesday claiming Paine’s treatment by Cricket Australia had been appalling.

But what is most “appalling” is both Cricket Tasmania and Cricket Australia’s handling of this complaint by a woman. “Elite honesty”? Try elite cover-up.

These cricket authorities have tried to convince us they are truly keen on fighting for the fairer sex, when in fact if an incident can destroy their Australian men’s team, they will absolutely protect him at all costs.

This despite the fact that the win-at-all-costs culture was supposedly dismissed after a thorough review into Sandpapergate.

Meanwhile the woman who was the subject of Paine’s sexting — the true victim — who complained in a letter to not only Cricket Tasmania, but Cricket Australia and also to the Human Rights Commission, has been smeared and shamed.

Since the original story was broken by the Herald Sun’s Stephen Drill, the theft charges lodged against her have been pushed aggressively into the light.

She allegedly fraudulently obtained a $705 Cricket Tasmania junior and platinum membership, a $339 Hobart Hurricanes family membership, and stole $1942 in cash — and what does that have to do with it all? How does that absolve someone for sending an unsolicited picture of their genitalia?

What this narrative is really doing is deflecting from true issues in the Paine scandal, like the fact CA and Cricket Tasmania are yet to explain how their investigation started with a written complaint from a woman about receiving “unsolicited” images and ended with them being able to declare with absolute certainty that this was an exchange between two consenting adults.

Sure, the woman was not interviewed and didn’t co-operate with the investigation at the time, but really who would want to take on the Test captain? Certainly not a receptionist in this case.

And while CA sent Paine’s mobile away for forensic testing, which returned no trace of the images or messages, how did they all come to the conclusion — which they now state as hard fact — this was between two consenting adults? Have they just taken Paine’s word for it? Have they assumed her flirtations were an open invitation for nudity?

And if the Test captain can just resign his job for private messages being made public, but can still play Test cricket, does this mean they‘re OK with 10 members of the Test team all sending lewd images to women privately, so long as they’re not the captain?

For all the noise made by Cricket Australia and their state bodies around gender equality, their handling of a genuinely concerning allegation of sexual harassment has been nothing but troubling.

This incident was covered up for three years.

While CA’s handling of this saga has been shocking it should come as no surprise. Three years ago Cricket Australia sacked a female employee after she campaigned for abortion reform on social media

We have seen other elite sportsmen quickly lose their jobs for unsavoury behaviour and yet Paine could still be named in the Ashes team.

It feels like CA are asking Australia to turn a blind eye to the sordid past, and you really shouldn’t expect anything less, because that win-at-all-costs culture still seems to be alive and well.