Extending its support to Tim Paine, the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) on Friday said it was “saddened” that the wicketkeeper “felt the need to resign” as the team’s Test captain.

Paine stepped down as Australia’s Test skipper after it emerged that he had sent an unsolicited explicit image of himself along with a string of lewd messages to a female co-worker in 2017. “While respecting the decision made by Paine, the ACA is saddened that he felt the need to resign from the captaincy of the Australian Test team,” the ACA said in a statement.