Australia's regular captain Pat Cummins, who was ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to an ankle injury, called out an Australian sports website for misquoting him.
Cummins, who recently talked about the "advantage" India were getting for playing all their matches at the same venue - the Dubai International Stadium - in the Champions Trophy, was wrongly attributed, calling the tournament "a farce" because of "picking and choosing" of the venue by India. Code Sport mistakenly attributed Veteran England cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew's comments to Cummins.
"I feel very uncomfortable about the way that India is being treated at the moment," Agnew told ABC Sport. "This is wrong; if you're going to play international tournaments, you can't pick and choose where you play and where you're not going to play. I don't see how long this can carry on for? It makes a farce of these tournaments."
Code Sports, however, ran a graphic on its official X handle, crediting the same quotes to Cummins. The Australian fast bowler took note of that and denied it.
"I have definitely never said this," Cummins said on X.
"I think it's good in that the tournament can go on, but obviously it does give them (India) a huge advantage playing on the same ground. They already look very strong and they've got that obvious benefit of playing all their games there," Cummins told 'Yahoo Australia'.
India have won both their games, against Bangladesh and Pakistan, comfortably so far and are through to the semifinal on March 4, to be held in Dubai.
Their last group match is on Sunday against New Zealand, a team that has so far played in Pakistan, also winning both its games against the home side and Bangladesh.
Cummins is watching the tournament from the sidelines owing to an ankle injury and is targetting a return to competitive cricket with the IPL next month. The break also coincided with the birth of his daughter.
"It's been nice to be at home with everything going on and the ankle rehab is tracking well, so I will start running and bowling this week," the 31-year-old said.
The ICC had initially planned for all matches to be held in Pakistan, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to send its team to Pakistan. This led to the adoption of a hybrid model, with India's matches being scheduled in Dubai, while the rest of the tournament is being played across Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
India's semifinal match will also be played in Dubai, further fueling concerns about their continued presence at a single venue.
Meanwhile, Australia, led by stand-in captain Steve Smith, began their campaign with a dominant performance against England in Lahore. Chasing a daunting 352-run target, wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Inglis delivered a match-winning knock, scoring an unbeaten 120 off 86 balls to guide Australia to victory.
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