Cricketer Tim Paine has quit the Australian Test cricket team's captaincy after a sexting scandal involving him surfaced.
According to reports in the Australian press, Paine sent coarse text messages to a Cricket Tasmania employee alongside a photo of his genitals.
"Will you want to taste my d**?? F**k me, I'm seriously hard", he said in one of the texts sent to the female co-worker.
Paine, who was appointed the national cricket team's skipper in 2018, is being investigated by Cricket Australia (CA) after his controversial remarks became public.
A teary-eyed Paine announced he was stepping down from the captaincy of the Australian Test team on Friday before apologising for his actions.
"Today, I'm announcing my decision to stand down as the captain of the Australian men's test team. It's an incredibly difficult decision, but the right one for me, my family, and cricket", Paine said.
Paine revealed that he had sent the lewd messages to his Cricket Tasmania colleague four years ago on 22 and 23 November 2017 and the sport's governing body in Australia wasn't aware of it when he was named captain of the Australian Test team in March 2018.
"As a background on my decision, nearly four years ago, I was involved in a text exchange with a then-colleague. At the time, the exchange was the subject of a thorough CA Integrity Unit investigation, throughout which I fully participated in and openly participated in", he added.
Paine insisted that once he came to know that his private text messages had become public, he decided to resign from the Australian team captaincy as he didn't want to damage cricket's reputation in the country.
"However, I recently became aware that this private text exchange was going to become public. On reflection, my actions in 2017 do not meet the standard of an Australian cricket captain, or the wider community. I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and pain that I have caused to my wife, my family, and to the other party. I'm sorry for any damage that this does to the reputation of our sport", the cricketer continued.
"I believe that it is the right decision for me to stand down as captain, effective immediately", he said. "I do not want this to become an unwelcome disruption to the team ahead of what is a huge Ashes series", he concluded.