Bengaluru: Australia Captain Pat Cummins remained non-committal to a query on the controversial statements of Mickey Arthur and Mohammad Rizwan, but on Thursday said those were not hugely strong thoughts, and only brought out their personalities.
"I think I only got half of that. But yeah, I love seeing sports people, seeing their personalities brought out as well. So, yeah, no hugely strong thoughts either way," he told reporters on the eve of the Australia-Pakistan match here.
Cummins made these comments responding to a UNI query on Arthur and Rizwan's controversial statements made during the ongoing World Cup.
After India defeated Pakistan at Ahmedabad for the 8th time in the World Cup history, Arthur had complained about the alleged partisan fans and no Pakistani music being played at the venue made him feel like a "BCCI event than ICC".
Pakistan's Rizwan had dedicated his century in the World Cup match against Sri Lanka to 'brothers and sisters in Gaza,' referring to the ongoing crisis between Israel and Hamas.
This statement sparked a mixed reaction on social media, with some users suggesting that he should focus solely on cricket and avoid commenting on global politics.
Many Internet users slammed Rizwan's post on X, asking how a social media post could help the people in Gaza.
Responding to a query about the Australian Cricketers Association's decision to do in funding for the netballers in Australia, Cummins said: "Yeah, obviously the net bowlers are in a bit of a tricky situation at the moment. And we were in a similar situation six or seven years ago. And we got some support that really helped the players. And that was, I think, from a few outside individuals.
"So, they asked for a lending hand and the ACA stepped up and said, yep, we'll create a bit of a fund to help you out and hopefully get you through these next couple of months.
"I know all the sports are pretty closely linked and all the players associations work really closely. So yeah, I thought it was a good opportunity to be able to help." (UNI)