Tainted former Australia captain Tim Paine
alleged that coach Justin Langer tried to persuade him to remain captain of the side,
despite the leaked lewd text message scandal.

Paine Paine revealed Langer’s reaction to
his bombshell resignation on Friday as one of many dramatic claims in an
explosive tell-all interview with his wife Bonnie. The couple, in an exclusive
interview published in The Herald-Sun and The Sunday Telegraph, opened up on
Australian cricket’s latest controversy that has rocked the Australian dressing
room once again for the first time since 2018.

Langer devastated

“JL (Justin Langer) told me he’s
devastated,” Paine told his wife Bonnie in the interview. “He was pretty firm
that he wanted me to continue as captain, and again, once I explained to him
the reasons that I thought resigning was the best thing to do, he was with me
all the way,” he added.

Paine resigned on the back of revelations
he sent sexually charged texts to a former Cricket Tasmania colleague in
November 2017.

In Cricket Australia’s independent
investigation he was found not to have breached the board’s code of conduct.
Cricket Tasmania’s human resources department also found Paine had not broken
any workplace regulations, describing the exchange as consensual.

But as the sext got leaked and
surfaced on social media, Paine stepped down as Australia Test captain in tears
on Friday.

CA has not taken any action against Paine
yet but on Saturday Cricket Australia chairman Richard Freudenstein admitted
the governing body had committed a blunder by not investigating Paine’s
background before appointing him as captain for the Test team following the
ball-tampering scandal.

Freudenstein also said the latest controversy
has “sent the wrong message that this kind of behaviour is
acceptable”.

More names pop up

Meanwhile, Tim Paine’s brother-in-law, former
Tasmanian Shield cricketer Shannon Tubb, was reportedly forced out of Cricket
Tasmania amid an investigation involving the same woman that Paine was involved
with, reports the Herald Sun.

It was alleged that Tubb left his coaching
position after investigations into X-rated messages sent to the woman, a junior
staffer, who former Australian Test captain Paine sent an unsolicited photo of
his genitalia.

Tubb is married to Paine’s sister.