India vs Pak Asia Cup: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has appointed Andy Pycroft as the match referee for the high-intense India-Pakistan clash during Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday. Despite objections, pull out threats and repeated requests by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the ICC did not remove Pycroft from the referee panel, and assigned him the match referee responsibility for the India-Pak clash again.
“Andy Pycroft is the match referee for the Indo-Pak game,” a tournament source told PTI. While the exact list of match officials for the Sunday’s game hasn’t yet been made public, it is known that the other match referee in the tournament is former West Indies captain Richie Richardson.
The development comes amid a row over Indian players not shaking hands with their Pakistani counterparts, which usually happens once the players leave the ground.
What is the handshake row?
India and Pakistan played against each other last Sunday where India defeated Pakistan. Pycroft was the match referee. At the end, when India won the match, the team didn’t shake hands with Pakistan. But somewhere in between the roughness the countries have, the Zimbabwean found himself trapped in the row.
After India skipper Suryakumar Yadav didn’t follow the convention at the toss, the Pakistan team sent two mails to ICC. They requested Pycroft’s removal from the tournament and also from their games.
ICC rejected both the demands, reported PTI, and stood with its Elite Panel referee. The international cricket body also refused the PCB accusations of Pycroft violating the ‘Spirit of the Game’ code. It said that the match referee was merely a messenger, who passed on what was conveyed to him from the Venue Manager of Asian Cricket Council.
Pycroft, Pak team management meet Pakistan team management. This included captain Salman, head coach Mike Hesson and manager Naveed Akram Cheema where Pycroft did not apologise but said he “regretted the miscommunication”.
In a separate mail, PTI reported, the ICC mentioned that Pycroft never apologised but only “regretted the miscommunication”. The ICC also accused PCB of violating protocols related to ‘Players And Match Officials Area’ (PMOA), which the latter denied.
The appointment of Pycroft for the India-Pak clash shows the top cricket body is stick to its stance on not removing the former Zimbabwe Test batter.
Asia Cup 2025
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have made it top four teams and they will clash with each other in the Super 4 matches of the tournament starting Saturday (September 20).
The first Super 4 match will be played on Saturday between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
India and Pakistan are set to face each other for a second time in the ongoing Asia Cup. The much-anticipated game will be played on September 21 (Sunday) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
India previously secured a decisive victory against Pakistan in their earlier group-stage fixture in Dubai and remain undefeated ahead of their game against Oman today.