Cricket Australia plays down Twitter leak by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	PJ Hughes
Event:	Australia in British Isles 2009

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DateLine: 31st July 2009

 

Cricket Australia played down the controversy surrounding the unscheduled team combination announcement on Twitter.

 

20-year-old Phillip Hughes revealed Australia's plans for the Test by posting the news on the social networking site three hours before the scheduled start.

 

His manager and coach Neil D'Costa took responsibility for posting the message, which read: "Disappointed not to be on the field with the lads today. Will be supporting the guys, it's a BIG test match 4 us. Thanks 4 all the support!"

 

But Cricket Australia dismissed the controversy.

 

"The information on Twitter was clearly a mishap, I have spoken to the guy who put it up," CA spokesman Peter Young said.

 

"He was very apologetic and agreed to take it down. Phil Hughes was not aware it had gone up on his behalf," Young said speaking to the Melbourne Age.

 

"We encourage players to engage with the public and use those channels but within the process and not before selectors have officially published the team."

 

D'Costa, who is in India, claimed the error was caused because he miscalculated time differences.

 

"I look after the Twitter for Phillip and we were certainly under the impression (the timing was okay) because of the time change," he said.

 

"I'm in India and I was dealing with all the stuff through Australia. Unfortunately I am probably the fool in this situation," D'Costa said to Sky Sports News.

 

"How our situation works is we get the Twitter from Phillip and I feed them into our IT guy.

 

"I don't think anything there was that much of a secret. The team were looking to make some changes to suit the conditions so I don't think there was anything that was too big a surprise.

 

"I spoke to Cricket Australia, they are very supportive of what players do on and off the field. They know this was an innocent situation."