Rivals have played amidst tense geopolitical tensions before but their strain has never trickled onto the cricket field before with PCB now contemplating withdrawal from Asia Cup.
It all started with match referee Andrew Pycroft pulling the Pakistan captain aside for a bizarre request before the toss. Pycroft, about to officiate his 693rd match, asked Salman Ali Agha to skip the customary handshake at the toss with his Indian counterpart. He asked Suryakumar Yadav to do the same.
Sunday’s match between India and Pakistan in the ongoing men’s T20 Asia Cup marked the first instance of these two countries coming face to face on a cricket field following the four-day conflict between the two neighbours in May. Naturally, the match was being played at the lowest point in the relationship between the two countries.
Eight days out of the match, the two teams had a training session overlap at the ICC Academy, and players from both sides made conscious efforts to remain designated to their team zones to avoid interactions with their counterparts.
In recent years, such overlaps have left fans with wholesome pictures of the players from the two sides mingling with each other.
This time around, however, the situation was different. There had been calls within India to boycott the contests against Pakistan, and Yadav was subjected to harsh criticism for shaking hands with Salman and Mohsin Naqvi, the ACC and PCB chairman, at the tournament’s curtain raiser.
It influenced India’s decision to refrain from the customary handshake at the end of the game, which Yadav unveiled was a result of the “alignment” between the Indian government and the BCCI.
“Our [Indian] government and the BCCI [Board of Control for Cricket in India] were aligned on the decision to play this match. We came here just to play the match and gave them [Pakistan] a perfect reply,” Yadav said after the match.
It has emerged that India batters — Yadav and Shivam Dube — were allowed to walk off the field without the customary handshakes by the on-field umpires, and the Pakistan captain was kept in the dark about this development. Salman, in protest against the umpires’ behaviour, refused to participate in the post-match press conference.
As is the norm in cricket, the batters shake hands with the opposition and umpires as soon as the match ends, and the remaining players and support staff emerge from the dugout for the handshake with the fielding team.
Pakistan and India have played amidst tense geopolitical tensions before, but their strain has never trickled onto the cricket field before. The pictures after Sunday’s game made for a grim viewing. It left a bitter taste for the viewers and decimated the spirit of sportsmanship.
Pakistan team manager, Naveed Akram Cheema, flagged his concerns with the match referee about the Indian team’s behaviour, Pyroft’s own actions at the toss, and the umpires’ role in allowing the Indians to walk off the field with the handshake.
A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) source, requesting anonymity, told Dawn.com on Monday that Cheema had also approached tournament director Andy Russel with his concerns, upon which he was informed that the match referee had been acting at the behest of the BCCI.
It has compelled the PCB to write to the ICC for the withdrawal of Pycroft from the match officials’ roaster for the ongoing Asia Cup. Pycroft is one of the two match referees — the other being Richie Richardson — that the ICC has nominated for this tournament. He is slated to officiate Pakistan’s next game on Wednesday, against the UAE. Pyrcoft had also officiated Pakistan’s first game of the tournament against Oman.
But, hidden behind the letter is a serious crisis.
A match referee is an ICC representative and is directly appointed by the world governing body for every international cricket match. As such, any change in the appointment needs ICC intervention.
The ICC chairmanship sits with India currently, and the person at the helm of the world’s cricket affairs is Jay Shah, the former BCCI secretary and the son of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s close friend Amit Shah, who is India’s home minister.
Following Yadav’s revelation that the decision to not to shake hands with the Pakistan team at the end of the match had Indian government’s involvement, if the ICC removes Pycroft from the Asia Cup’s roaster, it would be considered as a concession to Pakistan.
The PCB official told Dawn.com that the board is contemplating withdrawal of Pakistan teams from the Asia Cup if Pycroft continues to officiate the Asia Cup matches. And, the PCB seems prepared for the extreme measure, as Naqvi tweeted on Monday: “There is nothing more important to me than the honour and prestige of my country.”
What does the PCB’s letter to the ICC say?
The PCB official revealed that the PCB’s letter to the ICC stated, “It is alarming to note that an ICC-appointed and supposedly neutral match referee opted to indulge in conduct, which clearly violates the Spirit of Cricket and MCC Laws.
“The match referee failed to discharge his responsibility: to ensure that respect was extended and maintained amongst the captains as well as between the two competing sides; and to create a positive atmosphere by his conduct and encourage the captains and participating teams to do likewise.
“In fact, the match referee’s instructions to the two team captains were entirely directed towards achieving the opposite result. This misconduct violates Article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Match Officials, which specifically makes it an offence for the Match Referee to conduct himself in a manner, which is contrary to the spirit of game and violates the MCC Laws.
“Given the gravity, political nature/background, and far-reaching consequences and repercussions, the misconduct has also caused disrepute to the game.
The PCB letter added that “we believe the highest level of offence has been committed”.
What is article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for match officials?
Articles 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 of the ICC’s code of conduct for match officials, which include match referees and umpires, deal with the offences that are deemed to be against the spirit of cricket and those considered to have brought the game into dispute.
The explanation note under article 2.1.1 states that “spirit of the game may be defined by reference to the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket and involves respect for, amongst others (a) the role of the umpires and (b) the game and its traditional values.”
The Preamble to the Laws of Cricket sets guidelines for the game to be played within the laws of the game and encourages the captains, players, and umpires to make sure that the spirit of the game is upheld. There are nine bullet points after an introductory paragraph of the preamble, and what the PCB has referenced in its letter are the following two:
Congratulate the opposition on their successes, and enjoy those of your own team.
Thank the officials and your opposition at the end of the match, whatever the result.
Header image: Pakistan captain Salman Agha (L) and Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav look on during the Asia Cup 2025 Twenty20 international cricket match between India and Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai on September 14, 2025. — AFP
