Former Australian captain Tim Paine, who resigned following revelations of a sexting scandal, has missed out on a state contract for the 2022/23 season, likely spelling the end of his professional cricket career.
On Thursday, Cricket Tasmania announced its list of contracted players for next summer and Paine’s name was missing. The man took indefinite mental health leave from all cricket in November after confirmation he’d sent sexually explicit messages to a former Cricket Tasmania employee Renee Ferguson during her time working with the organisation between 2015 and 2017.
When it became public via The Herald Sun, Tim Paine broke down in a flood of tears when he fronted the media having lost his career, reputation, and torpedoing his clean-cut image.
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In a bizarre twist, it was then alleged Paine’s brother-in-law and former professional player, Shannon Tubb, also sent lewd messages to Ms Ferguson. Tubb is married to Paine’s sister and was employed by Cricket Tasmania at the time.
The text message exchange went as follows:
“We’re both fucked if this got out,” Renee Ferguson texted Tim Paine circa November 2017 on the morning of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
Paine then sent an image of his penis with the caption, “True, so fucked.”
He then told the ex-Cricket Tasmania secretary: “I’m about to give something firm a pull, myself I think [wink emoji]. Well I was going to anyway ha.”
Ferguson attempted to change the subject by saying, “Ha, sorry I’m getting ready for work… it’s a big day for us kids.”
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Paine responded, “Will you want to taste my cum? Fuck me, I’m seriously hard.”
Ferguson again tried to divert the chat again, texting, “I thought we were resting hands???”
Paine continued, “Can’t rest them when I’m this hard! Need to ease the tension… Finish me off with those lips then. [Wink emoji] #trust.”
Tim Paine remains on mental health leave and though he could theoretically be selected for Tasmania next summer, his days as a full-time professional appear to be over. He is likely to head into coaching.
Throughout his career, he played 35 Tests, 145 First Class matches, and despite the salacious drama that brought about his inglorious exit, is widely admired for helping rebuild Australian cricket in the wake of Sandpaper-gate back in 2018 — wherein three of his teammates copped hefty suspensions for tampering with the ball.
You can check out the Cricket Tasmania contract list here.
