Tim Paine says claims of Australia getting personal with sledging ‘completely false’

Australian cricket team’s wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine has rubbished South Africa’s manager Mohammed Moosajee’s claims that the visitors went ‘personal’ in their sledging during the Durban Test.

Australia’s tour of South Africa has been rocked by stunning verbal outburst from David Warner at Quinton de Kock in Kingsmead.

Both players have been charged for violating ICC’s Code of Conduct and bringing the ‘game into disrepute’. Warner has been charged with Level 2 offence whereas de Kock has been handed Level 1 offence.

Paine, who reminded that he was standing close to de Kock most of the times when the South African batsman had dropped anchor to delay their eventual defeat by 118 runs, has categorically dismissed home team manager Moosajee’s comments.

Paine was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au, “That’s completely false. At no stage was Quinton’s family mentioned, that’s 100 per cent false. I don’t know how their team manager can hear from where he’s sitting but from where I was, which was right near the whole time, there was nothing we said that was inappropriate.”

“Our stuff is the way we’ve always played our cricket. Certainly it’s hard, and we like to make them feel uncomfortable out there. But we don’t cross the line and bring people’s wives and family into the cricket game. And we’ll continue to do that for as long as we play,” Paine added.

Paine claimed being the only person who heard de Kock’s remarks involving Warner’s wife Candice. “I think I was probably the only person that heard it,” Paine said.

“Usman (Khawaja) had gone a bit further ahead and I was about to walk around them both, I just thought they were still going on just from the general chatter that was on the ground. And as I went past de Kock he said what he said and luckily I suppose I was there in between,” he added.

Paine also claimed that the umpires in the first Test — Kumar Dharmasena and S Ravi — did not report Australians for their behaviour.

“The other thing I should have said was that the umpires didn’t object to anything that was said. We didn’t have any of our players mention anyone’s family members or wives. Even on the ground. I’ve heard some comments from their team manager or former captain in commentary that we were crossing the line. If you’re crossing the line, the umpires will intervene, and they didn’t,” said Paine.

Meanwhile, Australian media reported that Warner called de Kock a ‘f*** sook’ during an hour-long sledging session. A video has surfaced in which Warner could be heard telling de Kock, “You f***ing sook. Have a look at you, you sook.”

It is also being reported that Warner took aim at De Kock’s family and called the South African cricketer a ‘bush pig’.