Asia Cup: Pakistan stay on but Pycroft issue lingers as PCB sends second letter to ICC

Pakistan may have withdrawn the threat to pull out of the Asia Cup but their objection to match referee Andy Pycroft still stands and the PCB has shot off another letter to the ICC demanding that the Zimbabwean be swapped with Richie Richardson for the team's remaining games.

It has been reliably learnt that late on Tuesday evening, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent another mail to the ICC reiterating the demand to remove Pycroft from all its games but as of now, it hasn't been obliged by the world body.

Pycroft is due to officiate Pakistan's must-win game against the UAE later this evening.

The controversy began after Indian players led by skipper Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team at the end of their match on Sunday. Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha didn't attend the post-match presentation ceremony in protest.

PCB blamed Pycroft for the fiasco, saying that he asked Salman not to shake hands with Suryakumar and also did not allow the exchange of team-sheets between the two skippers as is the norm.

Suryakumar, on his part, stated that the decision to avoid handshakes with the cross-border rivals was a gesture of solidarity towards the victims of the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terror attack and the Indian Armed Forces which carried out Operation Sindoor in retaliation.

Pakistan, however, labelled Indian players' actions as "unsporting", while blaming Pycroft for acting in a partisan manner. The accusations were followed by a pullout threat and a formal demand to have Pycroft removed by the ICC, which rejected the plea.

Pakistan stand to lose close to USD 16 million if they act on the threat and it would also be very poor optics for the country's cricket board which is headed by the current chair of the Asian Cricket Council, Mohsin Naqvi.

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, handshakes between rival players is a mere convention and not prescribed under any laws of the game.

Pakistan's leading daily, 'Dawn' has quoted a PCB source as saying that Pakistan team director Naveed Akram Cheema had been told that Pycroft was acting at the behest of BCCI.

"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.