'Absolutely Australia should manipulate the result. I'm dead serious': Tim Paine tells Mitch Marsh

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine has proposed a controversial strategy for Mitchell Marsh and his team to "manipulate" their final group-stage game against Scotland, ensuring that defending champions England are knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2024. Paine, who was forced to step down from Australia's Test captaincy after a scandal broke out in 2021, has suggested a perfect plan for the Aussies to derail England's campaign. 

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Paine on how Australia could hurt England

England find themselves in a precarious position after a washed-out game and a heavy defeat against Australia. With Australia already qualified for the Super Eights, Tim Paine suggests that Australia should influence their match outcome against Scotland to harm England's chances in the tournament.

"Absolutely they should (manipulate the result) and I’m not even joking. I've spoken to people about this in the last few days. I'm dead serious," Tim Paine said on Sen Radio.

"I'm not sure what the net run rate looks like, you don't have to lose the game, I think they can just let Scotland get close enough. Again, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Scotland could have a day out. But say Scotland batted first and got to 140 and we chased it off 19.5 overs to make sure they don’t suffer a big net run rate loss.

"I think England have to win both of their games by about 50 runs to even get up towards Scotland's net run rate. So, it's certainly plausible that you can win the game (but still ensure England don’t progress)," he added.

"That's not just because it's England. You got to go into these tournaments trying to win a World Cup. Who could certainly pose a threat in the latter rounds? That is England." 

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Josh Hazlewood also suggested a similar plan 

Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood also acknowledged the potential benefit in hindering England's progress and said it would serve "best interest" for all teams.

"Yeah, I think so. In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again," Hazlewood said in the media interaction after their big nine-wicket win over Namibia in North Sound.

"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 however suggested that the team's approach will remain unchanged, leaving decisions about game 'manipulation' to others.

"But yeah, 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. Yeah, that'll be up to people, not me."

(With PTI inputs)