Hazlewood's comments came in a press conference when asked about the potential for Australia to strategically either lose to Scotland or purposely win by a small margin to help their net run rate.

Australia have already secured their place in the Super Eights but Scotland could potentially lose out to England if they lose to Australia. Assuming England beat both Oman and Namibia, the two sides will be level on points, with Scotland requiring a higher net run rate to go through.

Following Hazlewood's insinuation that Australia could manipulate the result to knock the defending champions out of the tournament, William Hill have reported a surge in bets for Scotland to beat Australia in the match, which will take place on Saturday (June 15).

Odds for Scotland beating Australia slashed

A spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps, said: "Josh Hazlewood's confession that Australia may field a weakened side against Scotland on Saturday to try and manipulate an England group stage elimination has led to a sharp increase in bets for the Scots to record a famous victory.

"Richie Berrington's side have been one of the surprise packages of the tournament so far but were still considered big outsiders at 8/1 to shock the Aussies in their final Group B game this weekend. However, that price has contracted to 11/2 following Hazlewood's comments - which coincided with a big influx of bets on a Scotland win.

"Australia have meanwhile gone the other way - now trading at 1/9 after opening at 1/16."

While the odds show the bookies expect a higher chance that Australia could manipulate the match result, the ICC Code of Conduct forbid them to do so. Article 2.11 of the ICC Code of Conduct bans players and teams from intentionally manipulating the results of a game to gain strategic advantage.

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