Australian bowler Mitchell Starc has questioned the format of the ongoing T20 World Cup, declaring that teammate Josh Hazlewood’s remarks about England were blown “right out of proportion”.
Because points and net run rate are not carried forward to the Super Eights stage of the tournament, Australia had no incentive to win Sunday morning’s group-stage match against Scotland in St Lucia — other than pride.
The Super Eight pools are decided by predetermined seedings rather than performance in the group stage, so Mitchell Marsh’s men were handed the ‘B2’ ranking despite topping the Group B standings with four consecutive wins.
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Meanwhile, some teams in the tournament have the added advantage of knowing the exact margin of victory (or defeat) required from their final group-stage match to qualify for the Super Eights, as was the case for Scotland and Australia ahead of this weekend’s contest at Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.
The FIFA World Cup schedules group-stage games at the same time to avoid a scenario in which teams could conspire to force a mutually beneficial result.
“I think there’s a question to be asked about pre-seeding,” Starc said after Sunday’s victory over Scotland.
“I’m not sure I’m a fan of that.”
Hazlewood echoed his teammate’s remarks last week: “If you got through undefeated and have a good net run rate, it doesn’t count for much.
“It’s a strange one.”
Last week, Hazlewood acknowledged it would be in Australia’s “best interests” to lose against Scotland or win by a specific margin to eliminate England through net run rate.
England boasts a superior record over their Ashes rivals in T20Is, winning six of their eight most recent encounters in the format, so Australia would understandably want to avoid facing the reigning champions in the knockouts.
The situation exposed a flaw in the T20 World Cup’s structure, which put the Australians in an awkward position where they had control over England’s fate.
“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,” Hazlewood explained to reporters after Wednesday’s victory over Namibia in Antigua.
“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.”
Hazlewood’s comments prompted wild conspiracy theories of cheating from England supporters and laborious debate about the spirit of cricket.
However, Australian bowler Pat Cummins denied there had been any internal discussion about manipulating the result against Scotland, while Starc accused the media of distorting Hazlewood’s “throwaway line”.
“I think a throwaway line has been blown out of proportion by you lot,” Starc told reporters during Sunday’s post-match press conference.
“You don’t stuff around with mother cricket and trying to worry about other results. We’re here to win games. It’s international cricket.
“England now are on the other side of the draw, so it really doesn’t make that much difference for the next three games.”
England demolished Oman and Namibia by heavy margins to ensure net run rate was not a concern for the defending champions, while Australia snuck over the line against Scotland to prevent uninformed accusations of throwing the game.
“I saw it more as a respect thing, if I’m honest,” England bowler Mark Wood said of Hazlewood’s comments.
“He was saying England have done well against Australia in the recent past and he thinks we’re a big threat.
“I had no problem with it.”
Australia will next face either Bangladesh or the Netherlands at Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Friday, with the first ball scheduled for 10.30am AEST.