Former CA chairman says current board “abandoned” Paine, defends initial handling of incident
Former Cricket Australia chairman David Peever has defended his board’s handling of the Tim Paine scandal and criticised the current administration for abandoning the former Test captain.
Peever was chairman in 2018 at the time CA was given the findings of an integrity unit investigation into a sexting scandal involving Paine that found no breach of the code of conduct.
Paine resigned as captain of the Australian Test team once that scandal became public on Friday.
No CA officials were with Paine during his press conference, and current chairman Richard Freudenstein said it was a mistake not to sack Paine in 2018 once the organisation learned of the incident.
“While I cannot speak about the original decision-making in 2018 … with the benefit of all relevant information about this matter, Cricket Australia would not make the same decision today,” Freudenstein said at a press conference on Saturday.
“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.”
However, Peever, in a statement to The Age, said CA had hung Paine out to dry, calling on them to show “loyalty” to an “incredible servant” of Australian cricket.
“I’m disappointed to see a current chairman publicly criticising decisions of a previous board, several members of whom are still on the board and were part of the 2018 decision,” Peever said.
“I’m also very disappointed at the way Tim Paine has been treated by Cricket Australia. Tim has been an incredible servant of the game and took over the leadership of the national team in the most difficult of circumstances. He has led with distinction for more than three years. He deserves Cricket Australia’s loyalty and not to be abandoned at this time.”
Paine was cleared by the integrity unit more than four years ago, and Peever said the current board are making up their own rules.
He also saved criticism for Freudenstein, believing it’s “implausible” the current chair didn’t know already.
“The event in question occurred four years ago and before Tim was appointed Australian captain. By his own admission, Tim has regretted those actions at that time,” Peever said.
“But after investigation, he was found not to have breached Cricket Australia’s code of conduct or any other rules, and the matter considered private and consensual between two adults. Why have a code of conduct if you are going to make up your own rules as you go?
“Cricket Australia’s decision seems knee-jerk and unfortunately shows double standards. This issue has been doing the rounds in cricket circles for some years now. The current chairman has been on the board for two years and it is implausible he didn’t know about it. If he and his board felt so strongly about it, why wait until now to act?”
Paine is still able to be selected in Australia’s Ashes XI, with Pat Cummins and Steve Smith the favourites to take over as Test captain going forward.