Asia Cup 2025: Big Revelation Behind India vs Pakistan ‘No-Handshake’ Controversy

The fight between the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) over referee Andy Pycroft is almost over. PCB had written letters asking ICC to remove Pycroft from Pakistan’s Asia Cup matches and also demanded an apology for what they called “miscommunication.”.

The apology has cooled things down, but ICC may still take action against PCB for not following some rules during a meeting with Pycroft. A report also explained what happened right before the toss in the India vs Pakistan match in Dubai, which started this whole issue.

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According to ESPNCricinfo, match referee Andy Pycroft was told about the “no handshake” protocol between India’s Suryakumar Yadav and Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha only four minutes before the coin toss. Just as he was about to walk onto the field, the Asian Cricket Council’s venue manager informed him and asked him to pass on the message in the middle.

The ACC venue manager’s instructions came after receiving a message from the BCCI, with due approval from the Indian government, that “there will be no handshake between captains Suryakumar and Salman“.

The PCB was unhappy with how the ‘no-handshake’ issue was handled, saying Andy Pycroft should have informed the ICC about the protocol. However, since Pycroft was told about it only a few minutes before the toss, he simply didn’t have enough time to update the ICC. PCB admitted that if he had been given more time, he would have kept the top body in the loop, but the time pressure made it impossible.

The PCB has also said in a statement that ICC had “expressed its willingness to conduct an inquiry into the code of conduct violation that occurred during the September 14 match”. But, ICC maintains that there was no misconduct on Pycroft’s part.