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XtraTime Web Desk: Australian cricket team vice-captain stated that the players were seen playing ‘less aggressively’ during India’s last tour of Australia due to the repercussions of the ball-tampering incident which happened during the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town in the year 2018. He also made it clear that the Aussie cricketers had no intentions to maintain friendly relations with the Indian players to save their IPL contracts. Cummins has spoken about this after former Aussie captain Michael Clarke’s recently suggested that the players were scared to sledge India because of IPL, and hence, “sucked up” to Kohli & his team. Speaking on the remarks, Cummins said that the players were probably more concerned about the team’s image in the aftermath of sandpapergate scandal. “I think probably a bigger factor was six months before leading into that Indian series the media and everyone commentating on the Aussie cricket team were pretty clear in their direction in the way they wanted the Aussies team to go and that was playing a little bit less aggressively out on the field,” he said. “I’d say that would have been a bigger factor than trying to win or lose friends out on the cricket field. But you never know, that might have been a factor for some players,” he further added. Last week, Clarke, in an interview on Big Sports Breakfast, said: “Everybody knows how powerful India are in regards to the financial part of the game, internationally or domestically with the IPL.” “I feel that Australian cricket, and probably every other team over a little period, went the opposite and actually sucked up to India. They were too scared to sledge Kohli or the other Indian players because they had to play with them in April,” he added.