Post the Pahalgam Terror attack and Operation Sindoor, India and Pakistan faced off each other in the 6th match of the Asia Cup 2025 held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Pakistan were of no match to the world champions as India cruised to a thumping 7 wicket win with the Indian captain Surya Kumar Yadav hitting the winning runs. But it was his comments during the post match presentation and the subsequent press conference that eventually set the cat amongst the pigeons.
The Indian Captain dedicated the win to the Indian Armed Forces and to the families of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.
“Somethings in life are ahead of sportsmanship.” Surya told the reporters when asked about not shaking hands with his counterpart.
This didn’t go down well with the Pakistani team who were already irked about Surya Kumar and the Indian team’s decision not to shake hands before and after the game.
“Obviously, we were ready to shake hands at the end of the game. We were disappointed that our opposition didn’t do that. We went over there to shake hands, and they’d already gone into the changing room.” A visibly irritated former head coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru and newly appointed head coach of Pakistan Mike Hesson said to the reporters.
Pakistan then lodged a complaint to the ICC against Andy Pycroft, the Zimbabwean match referee accusing him of asking the captains to skip the customary handshake at toss. In their complaint to the ICC, PCB wrote, “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.”
Mohnsin Naqvi, PCB Chairman and currently the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in his statement on social media demanded an immediate removal of the match referee from the Asia Cup.
Pakistan had even threatened to pull out of the tournament if no action was taken. It would have set back the PCB upto USD 16 million from the revenues of the Asian Cricket Council and such a move was highly unlikely.
It has now come to light that Andy Pycroft has indeed been removed from officiating in Pakistan’s last group stage match against UAE and has been replaced by Richie Richardson. If Pakistan qualify for the Super 4 stage or the final of the tournament, Pycroft would not be officiating them either.
The double standards of the Pakistan Cricket Board stands exposed when none of their officials were present during the post-match presentation in the recently concluded Champions Trophy where India were crowned champions and Pakistan were the hosts.
India and Pakistan had earlier decided that they would only play each other in ICC and multi nation tournaments at neutral venues.
They are next expected to play each other in the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup.
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