Josh Hazlewood's manager, Neil Maxwell, has come down hard on Fox Cricket, calling out their "desperation to create controversy" after they aired a segment that twisted Hazlewood's comments to imply there's tension within the Australian cricket team. Maxwell, who also manages Test captain Pat Cummins, is not happy with how the broadcaster portrayed Hazlewood's statements from a press conference during the first Test against India, claiming they were misrepresented and taken out of context to stir up unnecessary drama.

Maxwell expressed his frustration, saying, “It’s been totally misinterpreted and portrayed negatively,” in response to how Hazlewood’s comments were covered. “You won’t find a tighter group of players than those in Australian cricket over the past two years.”

He was especially critical of the idea that Hazlewood’s words indicated a split in the team, labeling that interpretation as “absurd.” He added, “To make that leap from a No.11 batter saying, ‘You should ask one of the batters’ is just silly. It completely undermines their credibility.”

Who said what now?

The whole situation kicked off because of Hazlewood’s remarks after Australia took a beating in the first Test. When he was asked how the team planned to tackle the next day’s play and what could be done to change the game’s outcome, Hazlewood, batting at No. 11, kind of sidestepped the question about the batters.

“You might want to ask one of the batters that,” he replied. “I’m just trying to chill out, get some physio, and focus on the next Test and what strategies we can come up with against these batters.”

The next day, Fox Cricket used Hazlewood’s comments to spark a chat among commentators Adam Gilchrist, David Warner, Michael Vaughan, and Ravi Shastri about whether there was some tension within the Australian squad. Gilchrist noted,

It seems to suggest there might be some division in the locker room. I could be overthinking it, though, so let’s dive into the conversation.

This sparked more chatter in the media, with Vaughan and Shastri taking shots at both Hazlewood and the Australian squad. Fox Cricket shared a clip of this talk on their YouTube channel titled: “‘Staggering’ Has Hazlewood created divide in Australian locker room? Aussies in crisis mode,” featuring a worried face emoji and a red cross.

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