Pakistan is once again in the limelight ahead of their next match against India as Men in Green were almost trying to pull out of the Asia Cup 2025. Recently there has been a buzz regarding the meeting that was held ahead of Pakistan’ s clash against UAE Here’s what went down in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on September 17 before the Pakistan vs UAE Asia Cup match. It seems like Pakistan almost pulled out of the whole tournament.
The trouble started on September 14 when Indian players didn’t shake hands with Pakistani players after a match. PCB was angry. They even talked about removing match referee Andy Pycroft and maybe even boycotting the Asia Cup.
Things got intense before the Pakistan vs UAE match. PCB told the players to stay at the stadium because Pycroft was the referee. There was talk of Pakistan pulling out before PCB changed its mind and the match started late.
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Now, former PCB chief Najam Sethi who was there when these decisions were being made is speaking up.
Sethi told Samaa TV that some people were so upset they wanted to forget the Asia Cup and the ICC. Sethi’s view was that Pakistan should stick to the rules and stay in international competitions. He said he went to help the PCB, not to support Mr. Mohsin Naqvi.
Sethi said if the boycott had happened, Pakistan would have faced serious problems. ACC might have punished them, ICC would have fined them, foreign players might not have wanted to play in the PSL and they would have lost $15 million in ACC broadcasting rights. He called it a crisis for the PCB.
After a lot of back and forth, Pakistan dropped its threat to pull out and played against UAE on Wednesday. But the match was delayed and Pakistan claimed that Andy Pycroft had apologized. ICC kept Pycroft as the match referee despite PCB’s demand to remove him. ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta told PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi that Pycroft would stay because he had followed all the rules.
Pakistan blamed Pycroft for the awkward situation when Salman and Suryakumar didn’t shake hands or exchange team sheets during the toss on Sunday. PCB claimed that Pycroft told Salman not to shake hands with Suryakumar and told the captains not to exchange team sheets.
