Pakistan’s cricket staff lastly headed to the stadium for its must-win Asia Cup group match in opposition to the UAE right here on Wednesday after inflicting a dramatic delay to protest ICC’s persistent rejection of the nation’s demand to have Andy Pycroft eliminated as match referee.
“The team has left for the stadium, the match will be delayed by an hour,” match sources advised PTI.
Pakistan had held Pycroft accountable for the embarrassment it confronted after Indian gamers refused to shake fingers following their match on Sunday as a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror assault.
“Pycroft will remain match referee for Wednesday’s game and if Pakistan don’t turn up, UAE will be awarded full points,” sources had mentioned earlier.
A PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) supply had earlier acknowledged that the gamers have been instructed “to stay in their rooms and wait for further instructions.” The UAE staff has already arrived on the stadium.
According to the PCB, the 69-year-old Pycroft, who’s a former Zimbabwe cricketer, had advised its nationwide captain Salman Ali Agha to chorus from shaking fingers together with his Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav.
The Pakistani staff administration additionally alleged that Pycroft didn’t enable the customary change of team-sheets between the 2 captains.
“This misconduct violates Article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Match Officials, which specifically makes it an offence for the Match Referee to conduct himself in a manner, which is contrary to the spirit of game and violates the MCC Laws,” the PCB alleged in its first letter of grievance to the ICC.
“Given the gravity, political nature/background, and far-reaching consequences and repercussions, the misconduct has also caused disrepute to the game,” it had acknowledged.
The ICC rejected these accusations and maintained the identical place even when a second letter was despatched by the PCB.
According to sources within the ICC and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), Pycroft had no position within the fiasco and “in fact saved Pakistan from being blind-sided by informing them about what the Indians were planning to do.”