Suryakumar Yadav skips handshake with Pakistan captain again at IND vs PAK clash

India cricket team captain Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha once again in the IND vs PAK, Super 4 tie at Asia Cup on Sunday. Controversy erupted after the two skippers refused to shake hands when the two sides met on September 14. This triggered a row, with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) demanding the removal of match referee Andy Pycroft for simply conveying to SKY and Agha on behalf of the organisers to not shake hands at the toss.

No handshake between SKY, Agha again at IND vs PAK

India captain Suryakumar spun the coin while Agha called heads. The former won the toss and instead of the usual convention of shaking hands with the Pakistan skipper, he quickly turned to Ravi Shastri to convey his decision.

Perhaps as a protest, Pakistan cancelled their pre-match press conference before the game against India. A report claimed that it was done so because the team wanted to avoid answering questions on the handshake row and the Pycroft controversy. However, the team trained at the ICC Academy in Dubai as per schedule.

On Saturday, it was confirmed that Pycroft will continue to officiate the IND vs PAK match. PCB’s demands to replace him were categorically denied by the ICC. Earlier in the week, the PAK team had threated to pull out from the UAE match, if referee Pycroft was not removed. Later, Pycroft was made to issue and apology. There was a lot of exchange between PCB and ICC leading to the decision made on Saturday.

On Thursday, it had emerged that ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta had fired a mail to the PCB, over the Andy Pycroft meeting. There PAK team manager had recorded the meeting, and ICC had cited PMOA violations for the same. the PCB has disputed this claim. They went on to argue that the media manager is part of the squad and ICC protocols allow them to use cameras.