T20 World Cup 2024: Hazlewood's remarks put Mitchell Marsh in hot water

Australia's captain, Mitchell Marsh, could face potential consequences if his team attempts to manipulate the margin of victory over Scotland to knock England out of the T20 World Cup 2024. The possibility arose after pacer Josh Hazlewood suggested the idea following their game against Namibia.

Hazlewood remarked that getting England out of the tournament would be in Australia's best interest, considering England's strong performance in T20 cricket and Australia's past struggles against them. He stated that while it would be interesting to see how they proceed, such decisions would be left to other individuals.

"In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again. 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," Hazlewood said.

"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," he further added.

However, opting for such a strategy could result in Marsh being banned for up to two of Australia's three Super Eight fixtures. This action could lead to charges under Article 2.11 of the ICC's code of conduct, which prohibits the manipulation of matches for inappropriate strategic or tactical reasons. 

This could include deliberately losing a pool match in an ICC event to affect the standings of other teams or manipulating the net run rate. As per the code, the captain could be charged with a Level Two offense, resulting in fines, demerit points, and suspension points.

England, meanwhile, still has two more group stage games to play against Oman and Namibia. Their outcomes will also play a significant role in the overall standings and the potential scenarios for Australia's strategy to impact England's chances in the tournament.