PCB Chief reveals the reason why Pakistan didn’t pull out of Asia Cup 2025

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Mohsin Naqvi has opened up on the actual reason why the Pakistan cricket team didn’t pull out of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 campaign. Notably, there were reports of the Pakistan team boycotting their game against the UAE on Wednesday, September 17.

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However, they delayed the game by one hour, but the game went ahead after the delay. Mohsin, while speaking to the reporters, stated that the match referee had a word with the team coach, captain, and manager on the no-handshake controversy against the Indian team.

"As you all know, there has been a crisis going on since September 14. We had objections about the role of the match referee. Just a short while ago, the match referee had a conversation with the team coach, captain, and manager. He said that the incident (no handshakes) should not have happened. We had also requested the ICC earlier to set up an inquiry into the code violation during the match," Mohsin Naqvi told reporters on Wednesday.

Though PCB lodged an official complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC), demanding that the match referee, Andy Pycrof, be replaced, for not taking any action against the Indian players despite not shaking hands after the conclusion of the game. However, the ICC was quick to reject PCB’s demands and went ahead with Pycroft as the referee for the UAE vs Pakistan clash.

"We believe that politics and sports can't go together. This is sport, and let it remain a sport. Cricket should be separate from all this. I requested Sethi Saab and Rameez Raja Saab. If we had to go for a boycott, which was a very big decision, the prime minister, government officials, and many other people were also involved, and we got their full support. We were monitoring the issue,” he added.

ICC’s response to PCB’s complaint:

The ICC, in its letter to the PCB, said: "The ICC's investigation was conducted on the basis of the information provided in the report lodged by the PCB. We took the report at face value and note that no supporting documentation or evidence was provided with it.

"The PCB had every opportunity to submit statements from its team members alongside the initial report but chose not to do so." The world body said that there was "no case to answer" on the part of the match referee.

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"The actions that the match referee took, following clear directions from the ACC (Asian Cricket Council) Venue Manager, were consistent with how a match referee would deal with such an issue, communicated as it was with no time for him to do anything else (minutes before the toss)."

The ICC was clear that Pycroft was committed to "preserving the sanctity of the toss and avoiding any potential embarrassment that might have arisen."

"The Match Referee was not at fault in any of this. It is not the role of the Match Referee to regulate team or tournament-specific protocols which have been agreed upon outside of the area of play; that is a matter for the tournament organizers and relevant team managers," the ICC added.

"If...the PCB's real concern or complaint relates to the actual decision that handshakes didn't take place. The PCB should therefore direct those complaints to the tournament organizers and those who took the actual decision (which was not the Match Referee). The ICC doesn't have a role in that."

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