There has been a big revelation about the ICC match referee Andy Picroft on the ‘No-Handshek’ controversy during the India-Pakistan match in the Asia Cup 2025. In fact, on September 14, a few minutes before the toss of the India-Pakistan match, the match was told Rafi that both the captains would not join hands. At that time, instead of giving instructions to himself, he considered a message to give. The PCB then lodged against Picroft. In which he was accused of violating the ICC rules and cricket spirit and demanded the removal of him from the tournament.
Detailed information about the two matches played by Pakistan on 14 and 17 September has started coming out. According to an official who has direct knowledge of the case, the dispute began four minutes before the toss in the match between India and Pakistan on Sunday. As soon as the Pacroft arrived at the ground, the ACC site manager told him that the BCCI has informed him with the permission of the Government of India that there will be no handshuce between captain Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Aga.
PCB officials argued that Pycroft should have informed the ICC about this unusual request. It is believed that Pycroft said that he did not have time to do so. If there was enough time, he would take advice from the ICC. Instead, some initiative from the toss, earlier he told Salman Aga about the situation thinking that if Aga went to join hands with Suryakumar, he was avoiding the creation of a shameful situation in public.
Pycroft’s decision was not seen by the ICC as a violation of the code of conduct at any time, but as an action that he was authorized to perform in his jurisdiction as a match officer appointed for the management of the game. The issue increased further on Wednesday when there was a cloud of uncertainty about the necessary match against Pakistan’s UAE and the PCB threatened that no other match referee was appointed instead of the Picroft selected for this match, it would be removed from the tournament. The match started after an hour’s delay finally after a clear meeting between the top officials of the Pycroft and the Pakistani team.