The normally reclusive Peever, who has not spoken publicly since he stepped down as chairman in late 2018, accused Cricket Australia of disloyalty to Paine, “double standards” and for making “knee jerk” decisions in now trying to claim the moral high ground on the sexting scandal.

Current chairman Richard Freudenstein has claimed his administration would have sacked Paine had it been in charge when the issue was investigated and cleared by the game’s integrity unit back in 2018, painting a picture that Paine may have been stripped of the captaincy had he not resigned on Friday.

Peever said he was disappointed to see a current chairman publicly criticising decisions of a previous board, members of whom — John Harnden and Michelle Tredenick — are still on the current board and were part of the 2018 decision.

The former chairman also expressed his disappointment at the way Paine had been treated by Cricket Australia.

“Tim has been an incredible servant of the game and took over the leadership of the national team in the most difficult of circumstances. He has led with distinction for more than three years,” Peever told News Corp in an exclusive statement.

“He deserves Cricket Australia’s loyalty and not to be abandoned at this time.

“The event in question occurred four years ago and before Tim was appointed Australian captain.

“By his own admission Tim has regretted those actions at that time.

“But after investigation he was found not to have breached Cricket Australia’s code of conduct or any other rules, and the matter considered private and consensual between two adults.

“Why have a code of conduct if you are going to make up your own rules as you go?”

Freudenstein said at a press conference on Saturday that upon joining the CA board in mid-2019, he had “a very brief conversation” where he was informed of the Paine incident and the fact he had been cleared by a full integrity unit investigation.

Peever has taken aim at Freudenstein for laying blame on the previous administration for not taking action against Paine, questioning why in that case the current administration had not taken the issue up itself over the past two years before it became public.

“Cricket Australia’s decision seems knee jerk and unfortunately shows double standards. The issue has been doing the rounds in cricket circles for some years now,” Peever said.

“The current chairman has been on the board for two years and it is implausible he didn’t know about it.

“If he and his board felt so strongly about it, why wait until now to act?”

Freudenstein said he wouldn‘t deal in the “hypothetical” of whether the board would have sacked Paine had he not resigned — only to say the current administration would have removed him as skipper if in charge at the time the 2018 investigation was conducted.

“I can‘t talk about the 2018 decision, I wasn’t there. But I am saying based on the facts as they are today the board of Cricket Australia would not have made that decision,” Freudenstein said.

“I acknowledge the decision clearly sent the wrong message that this behaviour is acceptable and without serious consequences.

“The captain of the Australian cricket team has to be held to a very high standard, which is why it is absolutely appropriate that Tim has resigned.”

News Corp understands that Cricket Australia lawyer Christine Harman was called into brief the CA board in the second half of 2018 on the findings of the integrity unit, which had found Paine had not broken any code of conduct rules in his sexting exchange.

Although members of the board were uncomfortable about what they were being told about Paine’s behaviour, the decision to clear him and take no action against him was unanimous.

As part of the context surrounding the decision, the board members accepted an explanation that ‘sexting’ had become prevalent in modern society and did not in itself constitute deviant behaviour.

Although a moral question for Paine as a married man, the board was convinced of the investigation’s findings that the sexting exchange was consensual between two adults and did not constitute harassment.

Paine’s wife Bonnie told News Corp that she had forgiven her husband when he confessed to her in 2018, the time when the incident was being investigated by Cricket Australia.

“I have a bit of sympathy for Tim at the moment,” Bonnie Paine said.

“A lot actually. He and I went through all of this privately in 2018.

“I have had my time of getting angry, and venting and to get upset and we fought and we talked and then we both decided to move on with life, and do it together. I feel a bit frustrated that it’s all been brought up and aired in the public when we’d put it to bed years ago.

“I have moved forward since then. I feel like there is a lot of injustice for it being dragged out again.”