New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is mulling strict action against the Pakistan cricket team for violation of multiple tournament rule prior to their Asia Cup Group A clash against UAE on Wednesday. The match was delayed by more than an hour as the Pakistan team protested against the world body’s rejection of its demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft.
The ICC has sent an email to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) citing misconduct and multiple violations of the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA) protocol before the game held on Wednesday. ‘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 news agency PTI.
Filming meeting against ICC rules
It is also being learnt that despite several warnings, Pakistan breached the rules by allowing media manager Naeem Gillani to film a meeting between referee Pycroft, Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson and skipper Salman Ali Agha before the toss. The ICC had made it clear that media managers were barred from such meetings.
The team on September 17 initially refused to leave its hotel after holding Pycroft responsible for the ‘no handshake’ fiasco in the group match against India which caused the delayed in the UAE game by more than an hour. The PCB had alleged that Pycroft, at the time of toss on Sunday, prohibited Salman from shaking hands with his Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav.
These pleasantries were avoided as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocent people were killed. ICC later agreed with the PCB that so as to resolve the matter with respect to the India match, Pycroft would meet the team captain and manager before the toss of yesterday’s match, which he did.
Meanwhile, the short clip has been circulating on social media with various speculations on what might have been discussed during the meet. ICC has taken exception to a PCB media release that claimed Pycroft had ‘apologised’, when in fact he had merely expressed regret over a miscommunication.
(With PTI inputs)