Mitchell Marsh Might Be Banned for Manipulating Scotland Match Result to Knock England Out of T20 World Cup 2024

Australian fast bowler, Josh Hazlewood, has sparked controversy by suggesting his team might manipulate the outcome of their upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 match against Scotland in order to knock England out of the tournament.

However, this could land captain Mitchell Marsh in hot water with the ICC. He could face a ban for up to two Super 8 matches if found guilty under Article 2.11 of the ICC’s code of conduct. This article prohibits manipulating matches “for inappropriate strategic or tactical reasons… such as deliberately losing a match to influence the standings of other teams.”

The code further clarifies that “inappropriate manipulation of net run rate” also falls under this category. The captain would be held responsible and charged with a Level Two offense. Penalties can range from a 50% match fee fine to four demerit points and a two-match suspension, effectively sidelining Marsh from Australia‘s first two Super Eight fixtures.

What did Josh Hazlewood Say?

“In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again,” Hazlewood said after Australia confirmed their Super Eight spot with a clinical win over Namibia. “They’re probably one of the top few teams on their day and 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.”

“It’ll be interesting to see. We’ve never really been in this position before as a team, I don’t think, so whether we have discussions or not, we’ll just try and play it again the way we did tonight. That’ll be up to [other] people, not me.”

England are currently languishing at the Group B of the points table. On the other hand, Scotland are sitting at the second position of the points table with five points in their account. Their net run rate is impressive after their thumping victory over Oman.