Newcastle Falcons rugby coach Tim Payne has found himself the unwitting victim of the recent bitter cricketing clash between Australia and India.
He was targeted by Internet trolls from India looking to mock their rivals who mistook him for Aussie captain Tim Paine.
While Paine the cricketer doesn't have an Instagram account, Payne the Falcons rugby coach does and he ended up receiving over 600 messages and comments before he decided to set things straight and issue a clarification.
He shared screen shots of the abuse he'd been getting - "some very interesting ones," he quipped - in a bid to put an end to it. He also tweeted Tim Paine on his Twitter account for help.
Falcons coach Tim, who was actually born in Swindon, also shared a photoshopped picture of himself at the Gabba cricket ground in Brisbane.
"Plot twist," he captioned the picture on Instagram.
It was there on Tuesday India completed an epic run chase of 328 this week to win the series 2-1 and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the end of a fractious four Test contest which saw Paine clash with Indian rivals.
In the drawn second Test at Sydney Test he engaged in a verbal clash with India spinner Ravi Ashwin before saying: “I can’t wait to get you to the Gabba," where Australia had not lost a Test in 32 years, until India's extraordinary display on Tuesday.
According to separate reports, the Aussie captain's wife herself has been the victim of mistaken identity too, this time by the Indian media.
They have referred to Bonnie Paine as an 'Australian musical celebrity', seeming to confuse her with a folk singer from Oklahoma of the same name.
