Picture Credit: Twitter
Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine has announced retirement from all forms of domestic cricket. Paine’s last first-class game was in the Marsh Sheffield Shield, where he played for his home state Tasmania. The Aussie gloveman hadn’t made a public announcement about his retirement but only to the team that this game against Queensland would be his last.
The game between Tasmania and Queensland ended in a draw after the captains of both teams decided to end play 62 overs early on the final day. After the match, Paine also received a Guard of Honour as he left Bellerive Oval for the final time.
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Paine calls it quits after 154 first-class matches including 35 Tests and 95 Sheffield Shield games for Tasmania. He also has the record for most dismissals by a Tasmania wicketkeeper in Shield cricket with 296 and finishes 12th all-time on the Shield wicketkeeping dismissals list. The 38-year-old scored 6490 first-class runs at 29.63 with three centuries and a best of 215. He averaged 32.63 in 35 Tests with the bat and made nine half-centuries but failed to score a Test century. For Australia, he has 157 Test dismissals.
Tim Paine was called to lead Australia after the team’s sandpaper saga in Cape Town. Paine led the Australian Test team in 23 matches between 2018 and 2021 and helped the Kangaroos retain the Ashes in England in 2019. But Paine’s Test career suffered an abrupt end after explicit text messages surfaced which were sent by him to a Cricket Tasmania employee in 2017. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by Cricket Tasmania and Cricket Australia but soon resigned as the captain.
The 38-year-old wasn’t present for the press conference, but Tasmania captain Jordan Silk confirmed Paine’s retirement and talked about his career. "He's been a phenomenal player. I think it's around 22 years of professional cricket. It's an incredible effort to have the longevity that he's had,” Silk said.
“He's certainly going to be missed behind the stumps. I certainly won't play, I'm sure a lot of guys who are playing now will say that there will never be another keeper as good as Tim Paine in Australia. So we've been incredibly blessed down here. And we wish him all the best in whatever he chooses going forward," he further added.
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