Media slammed as Mitchell Starc protects Josh Hazlewood over 'match-fixing' claims to eliminate England from T20 World Cup 2024

Senior Aussie paceman Mitchell Starc clapped back at media reporters for exaggerating Josh Hazlewood's comments on deliberately losing to Scotland. 

Josh Hazlewood made that statement a few days ago with respect to England's chances of reaching the Super 8s of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. That statement had spread like wildfire with many former cricketers replying to Hazlewood in the most hilarious way possible. 

What had Josh Hazlewood said? 

During an appearance at a press conference earlier this week, Josh Hazlewood was recorded speaking about Australia's struggle against England in T20 cricket. Immediately after that statement, the right-arm fast bowler claimed that if the Aussies can knock the English team out of the 2024 T20 World Cup, then it will for their best interest. 

Many people on social media started claiming that Josh Hazlewood had revealed Australia's original plan to lose to Scotland and knock England out. Upon coming across this, the Aussie captain Mitchell Marsh even received a warning about a possible ban if the players were found losing to the Scottish team at will. 

Given the fact that England are the reigning champions, they will do everything they can to reach the last stages and the Three Lions will try not to repeat the horrible mistakes that they committed in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 and that's why Hazlewood made the statement. 

"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 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," Josh Hazlewood had earlier said. 

Earlier today, the Scotland team were, in fact, very close to pulling off a heist by beating Australia. The Europeans posted an outstanding 180 runs on the board at the Daren Sammy Stadium. However, the 2021 champions were not going to get scared by the target and they chased it down successfully in the 4th ball of the 20th over. 

Mitchell Starc reacts to the media's exaggeration of Hazlewood's comments

Mitchell Starc, while speaking after the match, bashed the media's over-exaggeration of Josh Hazlewood's comments. Starc claimed that it was just a throwaway line that was blown out of proportion by the media. He admitted that the Baggy Greens do not care about England or any other team.

He added that their focus is on the next games of the World Cup and concluded by reinstating the media's role in Hazlewood's comments' hype. 

"I think a throwaway line has been blown right out of proportion by you lot.  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. So yeah, I think that was blown right out of proportion by you guys," Mitchell Starc said.