The International Cricket Council (ICC) is considering taking action against Pakistan for “violation of multiple tournament rules” ahead of their Asia Cup 2025 fixture against the UAE that was delayed by the team to protest the apex body’s rejection of its demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft.
According to a PTI report, the ICC has shot off an e-mail to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), citing “misconduct” and “multiple violations” of the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA) protocol before the game played on Wednesday (September 17).
“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 is in receipt of the e-mail,” a tournament source told the news agency.
It is understood that despite several warnings, Pakistan breached the rules by allowing media manager Naeem Gillani to film a meeting between Pycroft, its head coach Mike Hesson and captain Salman Ali Agha before the toss.
After holding Pycroft responsible for the ’no handshake’ row in the game against India, the PCB had initially instructed its team not to leave the hotel, causing Wednesday’s match to be delayed by an hour.
The PCB accused Pycroft of prohibiting Salman from shaking hands with his Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav at the toss on Sunday.
ICC agreed with PCB that in order to help resolve the ‘no handshake’ controversy, Pycroft would meet the team captain and manager before the toss of Wednesday’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 declined entry by the ICC Anti-Corruption Manager because “he wanted to take his mobile phone into the PMOA”.
The source stated that at that point, the PCB threatened to pulled out of 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, in order to preserve the interest of the sport, the tournament and the stakeholders involved accepted PCB’s asks although this demonstrated a complete disregard for the sanctity of the PMOA, where the meeting took place,” the source said.
The ICC was not aware of how PCB planned to use the footage. The short clip soon went viral on the internet with various speculations on what might have been discussed during the meet.
The parent 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 PTI Inputs)
