Cricket: Australia ‘shocked’ by Pressure scandal, but returns to Ashes: Harris | Mighty 790 KFGO

Author: Ian Ransom

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian test cricketers were shocked to hear Tim Painen resign as captain “due to a sexting scandal” but are completely behind him to continue as Ashes’ goalkeeper, batsman Marcus Harris said.

Opener Harris said players only learned of Painen’s decision half an hour before he announced last Friday to reveal that he had been investigated for lewd text messages sent to a female Cricket Tasmanian employee four years ago.

“People were obviously a little shocked, but there are a lot of good leaders in our group,” Harris told reporters on Wednesday.

“So it’s not ideal, but someone has to get up and lead from the front.

“Painey is still involved and can still show leadership in many different ways, but we look forward to entering the camp and continuing it.”

The pressure, which has played a home game in Tasmania this week while other test players are on the Gold Coast, is the only specialist in Australia’s 15-man Ashes.

However, constituency chairman George Bailey has confirmed that he is not locked in the first test, which begins in Brisbane on December 8, when he competes to prove his condition after neck surgery.

Harris said Paine was very popular with the game team, he had done a “really good job” in difficult circumstances in recent years and deserved to be kept on the sidelines.

“I think you’re probably still claiming that he’s still the best glove man in the country and he still played a few important shifts against India last summer,” he said.

“I know he gets all the support from the players, and like I said, all the other things are up to the people above me.”

The resignation of Pane and the handling of the Cricket Australian sex scandal have led to charges when Cricket Tasmania has accused a national body of hanging the doorman to dry, which has freed him from all abuses in 2018.

The Sydney Morning Herald said on Wednesday that players were also dissatisfied with Cricket Australia’s pressure treatment, but Harris said he was unaware of any disagreement.

(Report by Ian Ransom; edited by Peter Rutherford)