The Pakistan cricket team were scheduled to face hosts UAE in a must-win final group game of the Asia Cup 2025 on Wednesday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
After their loss against arch-rivals India last Sunday and UAE beating Oman comfortably in their second match, Wednesday's clash was virtually a knockout game as the winner would join India in the Super Four stage.
The India vs Pakistan clash grabbed a lot of attention, more for the incidents that took place during the game as well as in the aftermath.
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India comfortably beat their neighbours by seven wickets to maintain their 100 per cent record in their title defence campaign, but Suryakumar Yadav and his team's decision to avoid shaking hands with the rivals became the talking point of the game.
While the gesture divided opinions among Indians and Pakistanis, the Pakistan Cricket Board launched a complaint with the ICC, accusing India of breaching the Code of Conduct and MCC's Spirit of Cricket.
Why did Pakistan want ICC to remove Andy Pycroft?
PCB demanded the removal of match referee Andy Pycroft as they felt he could have taken action against the Indian team for refusing handshakes on the pitch. They even threatened to pull out of the Asia Cup 2025 if their demands were not met.
ICC later rejected Pakistan's demands, which triggered the question of whether PCB would now boycott the Asia Cup, as they had claimed earlier.
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Pakistan skipped pre-match press conference ahead of UAE clash
On the eve of the clash against UAE, Pakistan did not send any representative for the pre-match press conference. While the official stance of the PCB was not revealed, it raised eyebrows whether the board are seriously considering boycotting the tournament.
Pakistan delayed start of Asia Cup 2025 clash against UAE after backtracking from boycott stance
Drama unfolded in Dubai just hours before the start of the Asia Cup clash as Pakistan players did not reach the Dubai International Cricket Stadium even two hours before the game.
Media reports later claimed that the Pakistani players were stopped from boarding the team bus by the PCB as they were still discussing the idea of boycotting the tournament.
Eventually, PCB gave the green signal as the team travelled to the stadium and the start of the game was delayed by an hour.
MORE: BCCI issues strict guidelines for Indian team in Asia Cup 2025
Did match referee Andy Pycroft apologise?
According to reports, Pycroft did render an apology to the Pakistan team, but it was not related to the handshake matter, as confirmed by the ICC. Rather, Pycrfot's official reason for apologising was due to a miscommunication.
ICC did not remove Pycroft from the game and he was the designated match referee for the Pakistan vs UAE clash.
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