Tim Paine says Indian cricketers dining at restaurant ‘pretty selfish’, put historic 2020-21 series at risk – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine stirred up the hornet’s nest on Friday when he suggested that certain members of the visiting Indian team put the 2020-21 Border Gavaskar Trophy at risk.

Paine, whose last international appearance was in that very series, additionally described their actions as “pretty selfish”. Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Navdeep Saini were the cricketers in question and the quartet decided to leave the bio-bubble and head to a restaurant in Melbourne after the Boxing Day Test.

A fan decided to pay their bill on their behalf and posted a video as well as snaps of the bill on Twitter, which then drew sharp reactions from the Australian team and led to an investigation from Cricket Australia over breaching COVID-19 protocols that were in place for the series, though no official action was taken against the cricketers in the end.

“I mean those four or five guys put the whole Test series at risk. For what? For a bowl a Nando’s chips or wherever they went, like I just find that pretty selfish to be honest,” Paine said on Voot Select’s Bandon Me Tha Dum, a docu-series on the 2020-21 series in which India pulled off an incredible come-from-behind series win after a humiliating loss in the first Test in Adelaide.

Pat Cummins, who has since replaced Paine as the Australia Test captain, echoed his views in the docu-series.

“It did annoy quite a few of the boys, especially the ones who had to spend a Christmas without their families. That was sacrificing quite a bit to be there on the tour to hear that the other team were flouting the rules and not taking it seriously,” Cummins said.

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