Tim Paine Is Obviously Shattered With What's Happened, Asserts Justin Langer
Published - 04 Dec 2021, 11:46 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:02 AM
Australia head coach Justin Langer said that Tim Paine is shattered after the texting scandal coming out in public led him to step down from Australia’s Test captaincy.
Paine had sent an exemplary image to a female co-worker at Cricket Tasmania in 2017.
After Paine was under investigation by Cricket Australia, the 37-year-old immediately resigned from his Test captaincy role.
Pat Cummins, who was Paine’s deputy, was promoted as Australia’s 47th Test skipper with Steve Smith named as the vice-captain of the team.
Tim Paine is obviously shattered with what’s happened: Justin Langer
Langer said that Paine has been an exemplary figure of the Australian Test team and the incident has brought a shock in his life.
“When I saw him he’s obviously shattered with what’s happened because he’s been such an exemplary figure in Australian cricket, for the last four years particularly,” Langer told reporters on Saturday.
“His life’s changed, obviously. He absolutely loves cricket. He’s 37 and he is as fit as any athlete, certainly in our squad and we’ve got some fit athletes here. He looks after himself so well, he’s very focussed so who knows” he added.
I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of Tim Paine: Justin Langer
Paine took over the captaincy role after Australia was hit with the ball-tampering scandal in Capetown in 2018. Under him, the team retained the Ashes in 2019.
Paine took a mental health break from cricket after the sexting scandal incident was out and will miss the entire Ashes series against England.
Talking about Paine’s future with the Australian team, Langer believes it is not the end for the wicketkeeper-batter.
“His number one priority at the moment is his family, as you can imagine, and that’s how it should be,” Langer asserted.
“But I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of him. We’ll wait and see, but that will be his decision,” he added.
Australia play the first Ashes Test against England on December 8 at the Gabba in Brisbane.
