The saga regarding Pakistan’s future in the Asia Cup 2025 is hanging in the balance. The drama keeps on growing as there’s no clarity about their participation for the final Group A match against UAE.
Pakistan are set to play UAE on Wednesday (September 17). With less than 12 hours from the start of the match, there’s still doubt over their stance on the match.
Pakistan escalated the No-Handshake incident after India vs Pakistan match, labelling it as an act against the spirit of the game. The PCB also demanded a removal of Match Referee Andy Pycroft from the Asia Cup, as they accused the South African of stemming the handshake controversy.
Despite the ICC initially rejecting Pakistan’s request, the PCB threatened to boycott their fixture against UAE and even pull out of the Asia Cup if their demand to remove match referee Pycroft was not fulfilled. While the UAE team did send coach Lalchand Rajput to Tuesday’s press conference, no Pakistani official or player was present. Salman Agha’s team decided to skip the pre-match presser, as they skipped the post-match presentation after defeat against India/
Later on Tuesday night, a Pakistan team spokesperson reportedly sent messages to journalists clarifying the outlook ahead of the UAE game and the rest of the tournament.
As per DAWN, the message read: “Consultations are underway in this regard and a final decision will be taken by tomorrow (Wednesday). The decision will be taken keeping in mind the interests of Pakistan.”
According to a late-night PTI report, a compromise has been reached between the ICC and the PCB over the no-handshake controversy. The ICC has agreed to replace Pycroft with Richie Richardson for the Pakistan vs UAE game, and furthermore, Pycroft will no longer officiate in Pakistan’s matches during the Asia Cup.
As of now, there’s no clear response from Pakistan, but MyKhel understands that they will eventually cave in with the compromise and play the UAE match. Incidentally, if Pakistan boycott the match today, they will be officially eliminated from the tournament.