- By Namrata Vijay
- Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:34 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
PAK vs UAE Asia Cup 2025: The ICC and PCB have had different opinions about the 'handshake incident' where on-field umpire Andy Pycroft was also dragged into the match between India and Pakistan of the ongoing tournament. The PCB has revealed that Pycroft had apologised to them for stopping the skippers of both teams from shaking hands at the time of the toss last week. But an ICC source has said that Pycroft had only apologised for the 'miscommunication' and not for the handshake row.
The PCB had accused Pycroft of his interference, leading to a miscommunication, and had also expressed his apologies to the manager and the skipper, Salman Ali Agha. ICC’s controversial match referee Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team. Andy Pycroft had prohibited the captains of both teams from shaking hands during the India-Pakistan match,” the PCB had written on its official X account.
According to the statement, the ICC will be investigating the complaint of the violation of the Code of Conduct filed by Pakistan. But the ICC said that they had already carried out their own investigation of the incident and gave a clearance to Pycroft, and that he didn't break any match rules.
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As per ICC, it was Pycroft who advised both the captains not to shake hands, as the Indian skipper wanted to follow this gesture to show their solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack, where 26 people lost their lives.
The ICC said that Pycroft did nothing wrong and, in fact, saved both the skippers from embarrassing themselves. Although he admitted that this led to miscommunication, the ICC said that he didn't need to apologise for the handshake incident.
The ICC also dismissed the claims of starting a formal investigation into PCB's complaint. And it had requested Pakistan to give more details before asking for another review. They had told PCB that a match official is appointed by them and can't be affected by individual member boards. And if they had agreed to Pakistan's demands, then it would have looked like a dangerous precedent.
This incident affected their preparations for the ongoing match against the host as the players reached the venue late after the ICC didn't remove Pycroft. The match started an hour late, and the UAE won the toss and chose to bowl first.