Asia Cup 2025: High drama in Dubai before Pakistan turn up to play late in must-win game against UAE

Dubai: After an evening of the ‘will they-won’t they’ dance, Pakistan eventually saw the writing on the wall, hastily abandoning their plans to boycott their T20 Asia Cup fixture against UAE on Wednesday, which would have ended their interest in the tournament.

With their original request for match referee Andy Pycroft’s removal from the event for his alleged role in the no-handshakes episode on Sunday against India summarily dismissed by the International Cricket Council, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent a second missive to the world body late on Tuesday night, asking that the former Zimbabwean batter be withdrawn from Pakistan’s remaining matches. The ICC rejected that demand too, sending the PCB into a tizzy.

A boycott of their must-win game against the local lads seemed very much on the table until 45 minutes before the scheduled 6.30 pm local time start. While the UAE team arrived at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium by 5.00 pm, Salman Agha’s men were asked to stay in their hotel while Mohsin Naqvi, the PCB chairman, held discussions in Lahore with Najam Sethi and Ramiz Raja, both former chairmen of the Pakistan board.

Around 5.45 pm, saner counsel prevailed, and it was officially announced that the match would begin an hour behind schedule, at 7.30 pm. The Pakistan team arrived at the venue a little before 6.30 pm. The toss was overseen a half-hour later by Pycroft, and Agha and Muhammad Waseem, his UAE counterpart, exchanged more than one warm handshake.

It is learnt that the Asian Cricket Council, also headed by Naqvi, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Interior, is not contemplating any action for the delayed start. The PCB, it is estimated, stood to lose approximately US $16 million had they chosen to pull out of the Asia Cup, apart from incurring other possible sanctions.

In a statement put out on X (formerly Twitter), followed by an audio-less video clip purportedly as evidence, the PCB said Pycroft had ‘apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team’.

"The ICC's match referee, Andy Pycroft, has apologised to the manager and captain of the Pakistan cricket team,” the statement read. "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.”

Long before this statement, cricket’s world governing body had thrown its lot behind Pycroft. In its second mail to the PCB, it stated emphatically among other things, “Following our investigation, we determined that there was no case to answer on the part of match referee for the Misconduct. The actions that match referee took was, following clear directions to him from ACC Venue Manager, were consistent with how a match referee will deal with such an issue, communicated as it was with no time for him to do anything else (minutes before the toss).

“Mr Pycroft was committed to preserving the sanctity of the toss and avoiding any potential embarrassment that might have arisen. The Match Referee was not at fault in any of this. It is not the role of the Match Referee to regulate any team or tournament specific protocols which have been agreed outside of the area of play, that is a matter for the tournament organisers and relevant team managers.

"It appears that the PCB's real concern or complain(t) relates to the actual decision that handshakes didn't take place. The PCB should therefore direct those complaint(s) to the tournament organiser and those who took the actual decision (which was not the Match Referee). The ICC doesn't have a role in that."

All done and dusted, then? One suspects not.