Even though Pakistan has backed off from their threat to withdraw from the Asia Cup, they still object to match referee Andy Pycroft. The PCB has sent another letter to the ICC requesting that Richie Richardson be used in place of the Zimbabwean for the team’s remaining games.
According to trustworthy sources, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent the ICC another email late on Tuesday night, reiterating their demand that Pycroft be excluded from all of their matches. However, the world organization has not yet complied.
Pycroft was due to officiate in Pakistan’s must-win game against the UAE later this evening, but was replaced by Richie Richardson on PCB’s insistence.
At the conclusion of their encounter on Sunday, Indian players under captain Suryakumar Yadav declined to shake hands with the Pakistani team, sparking the controversy.
Salman Ali Agha, the captain of Pakistan, protested by skipping the post-match presentation ceremony.
Pycroft was held accountable by PCB for the fiasco, claiming that he urged Salman not to shake hands with Suryakumar during the toss and that he also prevented the two captains from exchanging team sheets as is customary.
According to Suryakumar, the decision to forego handshakes with the cross-border rivals was made in sympathy with the victims of the terror attack in Pahalgam, which was sponsored by Pakistan, and the Indian Armed Forces, which responded by conducting Operation Sindoor.
Pakistan described the Indian players’ behaviour as “unsporting” and accused Pycroft of bias. This led to a pullout threat and a formal request to the ICC for Pycroft’s removal — a plea the ICC ultimately rejected.
In its initial letter to the ICC, PCB had stated: “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.”
As per article 2.1.1 of ICC’s Code of Conduct, “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.”
However, there are no rules in the game that require competing players to shake hands; it’s only a custom.
According to a PCB source cited by Pakistan’s top daily, “Dawn,” Naveed Akram Cheema, the director of the Pakistani squad, was informed that Pycroft was acting at the BCCI’s request.
“A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) source, requesting anonymity, told Dawn.com on Monday that Cheema had also approached tournament director Andy Russell with his concerns, upon which he was informed that the match referee had been acting at the behest of the BCCI,” the report stated.
