By Ria Jain
Although the Pakistan team initially threatened to boycott their must win final group stage match against UAE, they have now reached the Dubai stadium after a successful go sign from the Pakistan Cricket Board. This caused an hour-long delay in the match due to the ongoing negotiations. This also led to the Pakistan players staying back and waiting at the hotel instead of leaving while the Dubai players were already at the location.
The cause of this boycott were two formal demands put forth by the PCB to the International Cricket Council, first was to remove the veteran referee Andy Pycroft from his officiating duties because of some decisions that PCB claimed to be partial. The second demand was related to Indian team captain Suryakumar Yadav, who they accused of making politically charged comments. The Board thus urged ICC to take actions regarding the violation of its code of conduct, although no official statements have been released by them as of yet.
All of this roots back to the previously held match between India and Pakistan, where the ending saw some tension among the players. It so happened that the men in blue, led by captain Yadav, refused to shake hands with the opponent team after the match. In retaliation, the Pakistani skipper Salman Ali Agha refused to attend the post match presentation ceremony.
When asked the reason, Yadav justified his action by stating that the decision was taken keeping the victims of Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor in mind. Furthermore, the match’s referee Andy Pycroft himself, advised Salman to not shake hands with the captain and he also did not let the customary exchange of team sheets before the match. This led to the Pakistan team threatening to pull out from the final match if the referee was not replaced, though this demand was never fulfilled.
This boycott, if implemented, could have cost Pakistan around 16 million US dollars and disciplinary issues.