Don’t know if I could play international cricket: Tim Paine

Tim Paine (Source: Twitter)

The former Australian Test skipper Tim Paine has reflected on his struggles since the last year due to a scandal and also making an international comeback. 

Paine, who was mulling taking retirement and taking up a sales role in 2017, had a surprise call-up to the Test team. After David Warner and Steve Smith were banned owing to the paper gate scandal, he was chosen as the leader of the Aussie red-ball team. 

However, the former Cricket Tasmania receptionist Renee Ferguson launched the attack on the 37-year-old for sending sexually explicit messages from 2015 to 2017. The move sends Paine's cricketing career to the downturn. 

Although Paine reckoned the messages were consensual, he was forced to resign as the captain of the Australian team ahead of the 2021/22 Ashes. Furthermore, he was not offered a contract with the Tasmania board earlier this year as well. 

In 23 games under Paine's captaincy, Australia tasted success in 11 of them, including a whitewash against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. 

What Paine wrote in the book

Paine opened up on his struggles to Peter Lalor, who wrote in his book titled "The Price Paid: A Story of Life, Cricket and Lessons Learned", to be released on Tuesday (October 25). 

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

“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, along with his wife received professional help to save their marriage. The keeper-batter recently made his comeback to the Tasmania team against South Australia in the Sheffield Shield, and could contribute only 2, while involving in a total of six dismissals. 

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