The ICC is mulling action towards Pakistan for “violation of multiple tournament rules” previous to their Asia Cup match towards the UAE that was delayed by the staff to protest the world physique’s rejection of its demand to take away match referee Andy Pycroft.
The ICC has shot off an e-mail to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) citing “misconduct” and “multiple violations” of the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA) protocol earlier than the sport held on Wednesday (September 17, 2025).
“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 match supply instructed PTI.
It is learnt that regardless of a number of warnings, Pakistan breached the foundations by permitting media supervisor Naeem Gillani to movie a gathering between Pycroft, its head coach Mike Hesson and captain Salman Ali Agha earlier than the toss.
The ICC had made it clear that media managers had been barred from such conferences.
The staff had initially refused to go away its resort after holding Pycroft accountable for the ‘no handshake’ fiasco within the sport towards India, inflicting Wednesday’s match to be delayed by an hour.
The PCB alleged that Pycroft, on the time of toss on Sunday, prohibited Salman from shaking fingers together with his Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav, who made it clear that the pleasantries had been averted as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror assault.
ICC agreed with PCB that so as to assist resolve the matter associated to the India sport, Pycroft would meet the staff captain and supervisor earlier than the toss of yesterday’s match.
“The purpose was to eradicate any regrettable misunderstanding or miscommunication which may have arisen at the time of the toss [of the India match],” the match supply stated.
“PCB brought to the meeting their media manager and insisted that he be present during the conversation,” he added.
Naeem was refused entry by the ICC Anti-Corruption Manager as a result of “he wanted to take his mobile phone into the PMOA”.
The supply that at that time, the PCB threatened to “withdraw” from the match if the media supervisor was not allowed to attend and then insisted on filming [without audio] the dialog, which was a “further violation of the PMOA regulations.”
“The ICC, in order to preserve the interest of the sport, the tournament and the stakeholders involved accepted PCB’s asks although this demonstrated a complete disregard for the sanctity of the PMOA, where the meeting took place,” the supply stated.
The ICC was additionally not made conscious of how PCB deliberate to make use of the filmed footage. The brief clip has been circulating on social media with varied speculations on what may need been mentioned through the meet.
The world physique has additionally taken exception to a PCB media launch that claimed Pycroft had “apologised”, when in reality he had merely expressed remorse over a miscommunication.
PCB media supervisor Naeem was denied entry right into a subsequent assembly contained in the PMOA, the place filming is strictly prohibited.
