The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has rejected the Indian media’s claim that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has rejected the objection regarding the removal of Andy Pycroft. According to the PCB, the news of Pakistan’s rejection of the demand is baseless. The PCB still stands by its stance on the issue of removing match referee Andy Pycroft.
Earlier, a claim had emerged from the Indian media, which said that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had rejected Pakistan’s demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft. The Indian website India Today reported that the ICC, in response to the letter, rejected the PCB’s demand to remove Pycroft from the Asia Cup, and the ICC has also formally informed the PCB in this regard.
The Indian media had claimed that the ICC wrote in the response letter that the match referee did not act as an instrument of the Indian board. Indian media had further claimed that Pycroft would not supervise only Pakistan’s matches. However, former West Indian cricketer Richie Richardson is likely to be appointed as the match referee in his place.
During the Pakistan-India match, at the time of the toss, Andy Pycroft had told Pakistan captain Salman Agha that there would be no handshake at the toss. Andy Pycroft had earlier told the Pakistan media manager that all this should not be recorded.
At the end of the match, manager Naveed Akram Cheema had expressed reservations to tournament director Andrew Russell, to which Andrew Russell had said that we had received instructions from the Indian board and then said that these were actually instructions from the Indian government.
Later, Pakistani captain Salman Ali Agha also did not attend the closing ceremony in protest against Indian behaviour. In addition, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav brought politics into the game, naming the victory against Pakistan as the Pahalgam incident.
In the post-match presentation, Suryakumar Yadav, while flouting the rules of cricket, said, “I attribute today’s victory to the Pahalgam incident. The victory against Pakistan is a gift from us to the Indian Army.”
It should be noted that Pakistan suffered a defeat against India in the Asia Cup match played on Sunday.
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