Cricket 22's developer was forced to postpone the game after Australia's Test skipper resigned over a historical probe into messages sent to a colleague.

Big Ant Studios, located in Melbourne, said it had to replace the cover art, in-game assets, and team lists due to "factors outside our control," and that it had to cancel a critical day one patch.
Cricket 22 was set to be released on November 25th. This new patch won't be available until December 2nd, which means all versions of Cricket 22 will be a week behind schedule.
"This is the first time Big Ant Studios has had to postpone the release of a game," the studio stated in a statement, "but we find ourselves in an unexpected situation."

An important statement on #Cricket22. Please share widely. pic.twitter.com/NE5YizsgHK

— Big Ant Studios (@BigAntStudios) November 22, 2021

Although Big Ant Studios' statement makes no mention of Australia Test captain Tim Paine, but the delay is undoubtedly due to the cricketer's continuing sexting issue.

Paine resigned as Australia's Test captain on Friday, just days before the Ashes, following a historical probe into sexually explicit texts to a female colleague. Paine admitted to sending messages to a coworker at Cricket Tasmania in 2017, which led to a misconduct investigation in 2018 when she made charges against him. He claimed to have been "exonerated," then announced his resignation after learning that his texts will be made public.

To ensure the highly anticipated #Cricket22 game gets to fans by 2nd December, Big Ant Studios are proud to announce that Pat Cummins, vice-captain of the Australian men’s cricket team, will be on the Cricket 22 digital cover alongside Australian women’s team captain Meg Lanning. pic.twitter.com/NCCcvqNC5r

— Big Ant Studios (@BigAntStudios) November 23, 2021

Paine and Australian women's captain Meg Lanning were initially featured on the cover of Cricket 22. Paine has been replaced by Pat Cummins, the Australian men's cricket team's vice-captain.