Former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine has slammed Cricket Australia (CA) for handling his situation in the ‘sexting’ scandal.

Paine had stepped down as Australia's Test captain weeks ahead of the 2021-22 Ashes series over a sexting scandal with a former Cricket Tasmania employee, dating back to 2017-18.

Subsequently, the wicketkeeper-batter took an indefinite “mental health break” from the game as he was also removed from the list of contracted players.

Almost a year after the incident came to the public domain, Paine claimed that those sexually explicit messages with the former Cricket Tasmania receptionist were consensual. In fact, he was cleared by an internal investigation in 2018.

In his autobiography titled, “The Price Paid", Tim Paine stated that CA abandoned him and made it look like he had sexually harassed someone.

“I was disappointed and I was tired of this. I was prepared to cop the flak for what I did, but in my mind, Cricket Australia had abandoned me and made it look like they thought I’d sexually harassed someone and so everyone else would think so too," he wrote.

Paine further alleged that CA didn’t handle the matter in the way they were supposed to.

“The reality was they were happy to defend me and accept I hadn’t breached their code of conduct as long as it was kept private. If the story hadn’t run, I would still be captain and if Cricket Australia had handled it like they said they would I would still be playing for Australia."

Paine revealed that a PR consultant was hired when he was dealing with CA over the matter, which made realise his eventual fate.

“We did a phone link which included this person they’d hired from a public relations firm who’d apparently given advice to the board in the past," Paine wrote in his book. “He said that he’d been in the newspaper game for many years and this was going to be huge and would not go away. I found it very strange that this person, someone I’d never met and someone who did not work at Cricket Australia, took the lead in the call while Nick, the chief executive, took a back seat," he said.

The 37-year-old also suggested that it was the PR consultant’s idea, which led to him stepping down as captain.

“The consultant then said that the best way to get ahead of the story was if I stood down as captain. I was stunned by that, so was James. Who was this guy? What did he know about the circumstances? That was the first time anyone had mentioned me resigning as captain. There was no way I was doing that," he added.

Tim Pain also opened up on his conversations with Nick Hockley but the Cricket Australia CEO didn’t give him a straight answer.

“I knew what had happened. Cricket Australia knew what had happened and in my mind this guy didn’t know, or worse than that, it was like he believed that I had sexually harassed her. Then Nick chimed in, saying how experienced this guy was and how he thought I should listen to his advice. I said, ‘Do you want me to resign as Test captain, Nick? He couldn’t give me a straight answer, or wouldn’t. He kept talking around in circles.

“And this guy said, ‘If you resign as Test captain it will take the air out of it but if you stay on they are going to keep coming at you.’ I think he said I wouldn’t last until Monday and I replied that I would if they backed me in," he added.

Paine was left dejected as CA allowed the hired PR consultant to take control of the matter.

“I said to Nick, ‘You and the board know what’s happened, you have an integrity report that clears me of any wrongdoing to anybody and that it was a personal matter. It was becoming obvious what Cricket Australia wanted me to do but they didn’t have the courage to say it themselves, they were letting their hired consultant run the show. They’d held a gun to my head. I couldn’t go on without their support," he wrote.

(CricketNext inputs)