Australian Test captain Tim Paine
Australian Test captain Tim Paine did extend his support towards the decision made by Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings and his board amid the financial difficulties faced during the COVID-19, but also praised and thanked Kevin Roberts for his what he did for his Test team in the wake of the ball-tampering act.
Cricket Australia, earlier this month, sacked Roberts as their CEO and roped in Nick Hockley as an interim option, citing the former's mishandling of the financial situations during the pandemic which included furloughing 80 per cent of the staff, cricket team support staff including the batting coach and pay cut for the rest.
"At the moment I do, yep," Paine said when asked whether he supported the board. "There's always a negotiation, it's going to go on and the ACA and CA will work through it. What I do know is both parties have got the interests of cricket at heart, and they're both doing their best to come together and meet somewhere in the middle.
"What I understand is it's a difficult role and sport and business in general at the moment is very difficult when there's these Covid-19 restrictions, there's financial worries, there's TV rights, there's so many different things that go into it. What I will say is I certainly am happy I'm not in a position where I'm governing any sport at the moment in Australia.
"It's certainly a very difficult time to be in those roles and I think the disappointing thing at times is people continually going after these people. These are just people trying to do their best. I think sometimes we need to remember that, things get a bit personal and we like to attack people and go after them."
Paine then talked about the support that he received from Roberts when he was announced the Test captain in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018. Besides supporting a good culture on the field, Roberts also played a key role in Australia bouncing back from the horrors in South Africa to retaining the Ashes in England and having an impressive home summer last year.
"I've got to know Kevin really well. He's been great support to me in my time as captain. From a personal point of view, I'm certainly sad to see him go. I've spoken to him and let him know that. It was a very difficult time to be administering any sport as we've seen a lot of guys have lost jobs from the CEOs to people being laid off. I think for Kevin in particular, one of the reasons I did want to ring him was because it was reported a few times that he had a poor relationship with the players. And he certainly didn't. Kevin was well-liked and well-respected among our playing group. I think it was important to let him know that. I was disappointed with some of the reporting of that in the media."
