Pat Cummins: It is against Spirit of Cricket to manipulate Scotland match to knock out England

Australia rowed back on manipulating their match with Scotland on Saturday night to knock England out of the T20 World Cup, with Pat Cummins saying it would be against the Spirit of Cricket.

Josh Hazlewood sparked controversy after Australia qualified for the Super Eight stage by saying it would be in his team’s “best interests” to work out a way of eliminating England from the competition.

It then emerged that Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain, could be banned by the International Cricket Council if it was proven the team had deliberately allowed Scotland to get close enough to beating them and thus improving their run rate to knock out England.

Since then Australia have climbed down, claiming Hazlewood was joking, and even involved the Spirit of Cricket.

It is not that long ago, speaking in The Test documentary, that Cummins said “people use the Spirit of Cricket whichever way they want on that day.” Now he has done just that.

“I think when you go out and play you are trying your best every time and if you are not, that’s probably against the Spirit of Cricket,” he said. “I was speaking to Joshy, who had a bit of a joke about it the other day, and I think it got taken a little bit out of context.

“We’ll go there and just try and play Scotland, who have had a really good tournament so far and will be tough. It [net run rate] is something you kind of discuss as one of the quirks of the set-up but in terms of does it change the way we play, absolutely not. I’ve never stepped into the field without the mindset of trying to take the game on and be aggressive, like the guys have so far.”

There will have been an element of winding up England about Hazlewood’s comments, but the level of detail and thought he put into it suggests it was more than light-hearted Pom-baiting. “Whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out… there’s a few options there,” he said. He could easily have dismissed it out of hand, as coach Andrew McDonald had done the previous day.

Cummins is not the captain of the T20 side but remains the most powerful voice in the team and his intervention on this topic is proof of that standing.

England made the scenario pretty much irrelevant with their clinical win over Oman on Thursday. As long as they beat Namibia on Saturday and Australia do not lose to Scotland they will go through, barring a remarkable quirk of the net run-rate calculation. England could still go out if they only narrowly beat Namibia and Scotland lose by a slim enough margin to Australia to lift their run rate above England’s.

England will be eliminated if either match is washed out

Scotland and Australia play in St Lucia after the completion of England’s match against Namibia in Antigua. England will be eliminated if either match is washed out, although the forecast looks good on both islands beyond the threat of showers on Antigua.

Rob Key, the men’s director of cricket, has returned to the West Indies to oversee the next phase of England’s campaign. Key was in Barbados for the first two matches but returned home after the Australia defeat. He is now back for the crucial few days that may well decide the fates of the captain and coach.

England were rocked by criticism of their performance against Australia and Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott, the captain and coach, responded to it by taking on media duties and fronting up before the Oman match.

They were under pressure not just because of the performances here but as a result of a woeful World Cup defence in India last year. Key clearly has doubts over the running of the ship. He backed both Mott and Buttler after the 50-over World Cup, but then came out to the Caribbean to monitor the series here in December and is now back again. By contrast, he was only on the Test tour of India for the first couple of days of the first Test in Hyderabad.

The eight-wicket win over Oman, done and dusted in just over an hour and a half of cricket, will have lifted the mood and England are a team who have a habit of starting badly and responding to criticism by getting better. They were 2-0 down in last summer’s Ashes, only for the Manchester weather to deny them a 3-2 win. They suffered a wobble on their way to winning the 2019 World Cup and a rain-affected defeat by Ireland and washout against Australia nearly cost them their place at the last T20 World Cup in 2022, which they went on to win.

This time, however, confidence has been severely dented by the debacle in India and the real challenge will come if they go through to the Super Eight stage and face stronger Test-playing nations. After the World Cup in India, a semi-final place in this competition was seen as a minimum requirement for Buttler and Mott.

England picked their strongest XI against Oman with the addition of Reece Topley in place of Chris Jordan giving a better balance to the attack. Topley was very accurate, combined with his awkward angle and bounce. However, he does weaken the batting line-up, with the tail starting at eight and the test of England’s mettle will come if they face better bowling attacks than Oman. Will they then restore Jordan to the side for his batting? Key will make his mind up on such decision-making.