Chairman Richard Freudenstein on Saturday admitted Cricket Australia erred in not relieving Tim Paine of the Test captaincy when the initial investigation into his action of sending explicit messages to a female co-worker took place.

The 36-year-old stepped down as Australia's Test skipper on Friday after it emerged that he had sent unsolicited explicit image of himself along with a string of lewd messages to a female co-worker in 2017, months before he was made captain.