Pat Cummins denies comments on India's Champions Trophy venue

Australian captain Pat Cummins has strongly criticized an Australian publication for misrepresenting his comments about India’s venue in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

Cummins, who is not participating in the tournament, accused Code Cricket of wrongly attributing remarks to him. 

On Tuesday, February 25, Code Cricket published a tweet suggesting that Cummins had questioned the ICC's favoritism towards India in the Champions Trophy. The report further claimed that Cummins had called the tournament a "farce" and criticized teams for choosing their match venues.

However, the comments in question were actually made by former England pacer Jonathan Agnew. Agnew had expressed concerns over India playing all their group-stage matches at a single venue, arguing that this gave an unfair advantage to the Indian team, as other teams had to play at multiple locations.

"I feel very uncomfortable about the way India is being treated at the moment," Agnew said in an interview with ABC Sport. 

"This is wrong. If you're going to play international tournaments, you can't pick and choose where you play. I don't see how long this can carry on—it makes a farce of these tournaments," he added. 

Despite Agnew being the source of these remarks, Code Cricket mistakenly attributed them to Cummins. 

The Australian captain quickly responded on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), tagging the media outlet to clarify the situation. "I have definitely never said this. @codecricketau," Cummins wrote.

The post was deleted shortly after Cummins’ reaction.