• Source:JND
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Asia Cup 2025: The ICC is considering action against Pakistan for “violating multiple tournament rules" before their Asia Cup match against the UAE, which was delayed by the team in protest of the world body’s decision not to remove match referee Andy Pycroft.

The ICC has sent an email to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) citing “misconduct" and “multiple violations" of the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA) protocol before the game held on Wednesday.

“The ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta has written to the PCB stating that the board has been guilty of repeated PMOA violations on match day. PCB receives the email," a tournament source told PTI.

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It is understood that despite several warnings, Pakistan breached the rules by allowing media manager Naeem Gillani to film a meeting between Pycroft, head coach Mike Hesson, and captain Salman Ali Agha before the toss.

The ICC had made it clear that media managers were barred from such meetings.

The team had initially refused to leave its hotel after holding Pycroft responsible for the ‘no handshake’ incident in the game against India, causing Wednesday’s match to be delayed by an hour.

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The PCB alleged that Pycroft, at the time of the toss on Sunday, prohibited Salman from shaking hands with his Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav, who clarified that the gesture was avoided to show solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.

The ICC agreed with the PCB that to help resolve the matter related to the India game, Pycroft would meet the team captain and manager before the toss of yesterday’s match.

“The purpose was to eradicate any regrettable misunderstanding or miscommunication which may have arisen at the time of the toss (of the India match)," the tournament source said.

“PCB brought to the meeting their media manager and insisted that he be present during the conversation," he added.

Naeem was refused entry by the ICC Anti-Corruption Manager because “he wanted to take his mobile phone into the PMOA".

The source indicated that at that point, the PCB threatened to “withdraw" from the match if the media manager was not allowed to attend and then insisted on filming (without audio) the conversation, which was a “further violation of the PMOA regulations."

“The ICC, to preserve the interest of the sport, the tournament, and the stakeholders involved, accepted PCB’s requests despite this demonstrating a complete disregard for the sanctity of the PMOA, where the meeting took place," the source said.

The ICC was also not informed of how the PCB planned to use the filmed footage. The short clip has been circulating on social media with various speculations about what might have been discussed during the meeting.

The world body has also taken exception to a PCB media release that claimed Pycroft had “apologised", when in fact he had merely expressed regret over a miscommunication.

PCB media manager Naeem was denied entry into a subsequent meeting inside the PMOA, where filming is strictly prohibited.

(With inputs from PTI)