By Dawn.com

Copyright dawn

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday said that Zimbabwean referee Andy Pycroft apologised to the manager and captain of the Green Shirts over a controversy during the recent Pakistan-India match.

Uncertainty regarding the national team’s participation in the Asia Cup today emerged after the handshake controversy that unfolded in their match against archrivals India.

The Zimbabwean oversaw Sunday’s politically charged clash with India, after which the victorious India team refused to shake hands with the Pakistan players. The PCB said that Pycroft told Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha not to shake hands with Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav before the match. Pycroft was scheduled to be the match referee for today’s game as reports coming out from India claimed the ICC had rejected Pakistan’s demand.

A statement issued today by the PCB shortly before the toss between Pakistan and UAE said: “The ICC’s match referee, Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team.”

It said he termed the Sunday incident “a result of miscommunication and apologised”. The PCB also added that the ICC expressed its willingness to conduct an inquiry into the code of conduct violation that occurred during the match.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore shortly after the toss, with former PCB chiefs Najam Sethi and Ramiz Raja, cricket board chairman Mohsin Naqvi reiterated the events of the past few days and said Pycroft had apologised.

“Politics and cricket cannot go together. Let sports remain sports. Cricket should be above all this,” he said, adding that he had requested his predecessors for consultation since any boycott would have been a major decision with input from multiple stakeholders.

“These two specially came and we were constantly monitoring this because we did not even know ourselves what decision would be taken at the last moment. God maintained Pakistan’s dignity as the nation was expecting and I hope that we will now focus on cricket and not on politics.”

He said he had hope from the team of performing in the tournament and called on the people to support them till the end.

“We have a big panel of selectors, which will review and if there is any weakness, I promise that I will sit with them and tell them to remove them,” he said.

Sethi also said that politics should not be involved with sports, adding that the PCB had displayed sportsmanship. “I think cricket is the winner and we should continue to play the game,” he added.

Meanwhile, Raja termed the development a “win” since he said the situation had become a “critical” one.

“Emotions were running high and I am happy that an emotional decision was not taken that would have damaged cricket,” he said, adding that the cricket team had to do any “talking” and channel any frustration with its performance on the field.

The Pakistan cricket team was earlier seen leaving their hotel for their Asia Cup match against the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday after Naqvi asked them to depart.

The Asian Cricket Council confirmed in a statement that the match would go ahead at 8:30pm PKT.

In a statement that came late on Tuesday night, following what Dawn learnt was a meeting involving officials from the board and the government in Islamabad, PCB spokesperson Amir Mir had said in a statement that the board had not made any final decision regarding the Asia Cup.

The PCB correspondence was followed by Pakistan’s decision to not hold their pre-match press conference ahead of their final Group ‘A’ fixture against hosts UAE. The Pakistan team did, however, turn up for practice on the eve of the game.

Earlier, media reports said the Pakistan cricket team would not play their men’s Asia Cup 2025 match against the UAE.

Geo News reported that the team was given official instructions to return to their rooms, with the team bus parking outside the entrance to unload the players’ equipment.

Footage run by DawnNewsTV showed team staff loading kit bags into a bus outside the players’ hotel, adding that the bus was headed to the stadium.

This is not the first time teams have tried to change a match official in international cricket. India, in a 2001 test against South Africa, tried to have match referee Mike Denness removed, according to a report by Cricinfo.

The Indian and South African cricket boards agreed to remove Denness; however, the decision was not taken by the International Cricket Council (ICC).