# Cricket: Tim Paine has stepped down as Australia’s captain on the eve of the Ashes series. His decision comes after an off-field scandal emerged, where he sent explicit texts to a female co-worker at Cricket Tasmania in 2017. The integrity unit investigation four years ago cleared Paine of any breach of Cricket Australia’s code of conduct, but he says he deeply regretted his actions. He says he thought this incident was behind him; however he recently became aware that this private text exchange was going to become public.