After plenty of delay, uncertainty, and drama, the PAK vs UAE match, which is a virtual knockout game, finally got going an hour after it was scheduled to start, as Pakistan didn’t boycott tonight’s encounter and put forward their contention to progress to the Super 4 round of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025.
Andy Pycroft was retained as the match referee, but the PCB has claimed that they continued with the game only after Pycroft had apologized to them, and the ICC is in the loop of things. That claim comes despite the ICC reportedly twice quashing away PCB’s demand to remove Pycroft from their encounter against the UAE.
The PCB delayed the game by an hour after asking its players to not leave the team hotel. The Pakistani players were in the team hotel until about an hour before the original scheduled start of the match.
To indicate that the game will go on, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi tweeted, “We have asked the Pakistan team to depart for the Dubai Cricket Stadium. Further details to follow.”
However, another interesting message was sent out by the PCB around the time the toss took place, with Pycroft now in the middle along with the two captains.
Andy Pycroft owns up for “miscommunication” and apologises to Pakistan captain, says PCB
The PCB has released a statement claiming that Pycroft had owned up to his mistake of barring Salman Ali Agha and Suryakumar Yadav from shaking hands last Sunday during the toss of the IND vs PAK clash. Pycroft, the PCB added, laid the incident to being “a result of miscommunication.”
Statement from the PCB:
“The ICC’s match referee, Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team. Andy Pycroft had barred the captains of India and Pakistan from shaking hands during their match.
The Pakistan Cricket Board had strongly reacted to Andy Pycroft’s actions. Andy Pycroft termed the September 14 incident a result of miscommunication and apologised. The ICC has expressed its willingness to conduct an inquiry into the code of conduct violation that occurred during the September 14 match.”
This statement was revealed by ESPNcricinfo.
The ICC has not yet issued any statement on this matter. According to Cricbuzz, the ICC had, in clear terms, told the PCB that Pycroft will not be removed as match referee from the PAK vs UAE match and from the Asia Cup.
The ICC had conducted their own inquiry and found that he had “not violated any match protocols” and “found no wrongdoing or misconduct by the match referee.”
Pakistan had threatened to boycott the PAK vs UAE match, which would not only have resulted in them being eliminated from the Asia Cup but, more significantly, would have likely copped them a huge fine from the ICC and ACC. The potential penalty could have been in millions of dollars, something the PCB couldn’t afford.
Meanwhile, the UAE won the toss and opted to bowl. Pakistan have brought in fast bowler Haris Rauf and all-rounder Khushdil Shah for this must-win match.
PAK vs UAE Playing 11s:
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris (w), Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzada Farhan, Khushdil Shah, Salman Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi
UAE: Muhammad Waseem (c), Alishan Sharafu, Asif Khan, Rahul Chopra (w), Dhruv Parashar, Muhammad Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Muhammad Zohaib, Harshit Kaushik, Haider Ali, Junaid Siddique
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