Australia star Josh Hazlewood admitted that knocking England out of the T20 World Cup would be in their “best interests” while knowing defeat to Scotland would seal an early exit from the tournament for Jos Buttler’s side.
England know that they must defeat both Oman and Namibia in their final Group B matches to stand a chance of qualifying, after picking up just one point against Australia and Scotland.
But if Scotland upset the odds and claim victory over Australia on Saturday, they will join the Aussies in the knockout stages. They may even knock England out with a narrow defeat through a loophole, as a small-margin loss could see Scotland finish with a higher net run-rate than their neighbours.
Hazelwood and Australia are seemingly very aware of the different permutations at play and hinted that playing in a way that could send England home early would be to their benefit.
“In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again and they’re probably one of the top few teams on their day,” Hazelwood began. “We’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket, so if we can get them out of the tournament, that’s in our best interest as well as probably everyone else’s I think.
“It will be interesting to see, never really been in this position before as a team I don’t think. Whether we have discussions or not, or we just try and play again the way we played tonight, that will be up to people, not me.”
Hazelwood’s comments have sparked backlash, with the tournament’s integrity potentially at stake. When asked what helping knock out England may look like, he elaborated further: “Not too sure really. Whether you get close and just knock it around, drag it out.”
If Australia were found to have manipulated the score of their match to purposefully deny England a place in the Super Eight, their captain Mitchell Marsh could face a two-match ban.
Article 2.11 of the ICC’s code of conduct, which is designed to prevent the manipulation of games for “inappropriate strategic or tactical reasons” states: “Such as when a team deliberately loses a pool match in an ICC Event in order to affect the standings of other teams in that ICC Event.”
The code of conduct confirms that the law applies to “the inappropriate manipulation of a net run rate” and the captain would be held responsible, and charged with a Level Two offence, which could net skipper Marsh a 50 per cent match fee fine, four demerit points and two suspension points.
England head coach Matthew Mott, who previously coached Hazlewood during their time together at New South Wales, hopes that the pace bowler’s comments were just “tongue in cheek” and the result of “a very good sense of humour”.
Mott replied: “I am hoping it was very much tongue in cheek. I actually don’t think it is ever going to play out. Having grown up in Australia, and the will to win every game, I am sure they will come to the fore. I am very much hoping it was an offhand remark by a really good bloke who is having fun.”
