Asia Cup 2025: Pakistan lodge a complaint over India for no handshake; Urge ICC to sack the Match Referee

India defeated Pakistan by seven wickets in their Asia Cup 2025 group A clash.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come up with massive action against the Indian Cricket Team over the handshake controversy during the ongoing Asia Cup 2025. The group A match between the two teams took place at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday (14th September). 

The Indian team came up with a sensational effort with the bat and ball. They thumped Pakistan by seven wickets to register their second win of the tournament. After being asked to field first, they restricted the Salman Agha-led side to just 127 runs with Sahibzada Farhan being the top run-getter with his 40-run knock. 

Kuldeep Yadav oozed his class with the ball as he bagged a three-fer, while Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel grabbed two scalps. Their brilliance with the bat was supported well by the batters, who demolished the Pakistan bowling lineup. 

Abhishek Sharma (31) starred with the bat as he took Shaheen Afridi to cleaners. Suryakumar Yadav (47*) and Tilak Varma (31) also played crucial roles as India chased the target with seven wickets in hand. 

PCB lodes a strong protest against the Indian players’ behaviour

After the game concluded, Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube walked away without even shaking the hands of the Pakistan players. This became a massive controversy and saw the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) getting involved in it as well and lodging a strong protest against the Indian players’ behaviour.

“Team manager Naveed Cheema lodged a strong protest against Indian players’ behaviour of not shaking hands,” PCB said in a statement. “It was deemed as unsporting and against the spirit of the game. As a protest, we did not send our captain to the post-match ceremony.”

Mohsin Naqvi demands the removal of Andy Pycroft from the panel of match referees

Not only this, PCB escalated the issue even more with their chairman Mohsin Naqvi demanding the removal of Andy Pycroft from the panel of match referees for the Asia Cup.

“The PCB has lodged a complaint with the ICC regarding violations by the Match Referee of the ICC Code of Conduct and the MCC Laws pertaining to the Spirit of Cricket. The PCB has demanded an immediate removal of the Match Referee from the Asia Cup,” Mohsin Naqvi, who is the chairman of the PCB, has said in a social media post on Monday (September 15).

There is a belief in PCB that Pycroft became a party to one side. The reports claimed that PCB has taken its protest to the extent of threatening a boycott of its next game, against the UAE, on September 17, if its demand for the removal of the Zimbabwean is not met.

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