The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday, September 17, issued a brutal and fiery six-point rebuttal, where the governing body steadfastly maintained a stance that the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) official complaints and accusations were baseless. Notably, the board alleged that match referee Andy Pycroft had a huge role in India captain Suryakumar Yadav and Pakistan captain Salman Agha not greeting each other during the toss in their match on September 14 in Dubai.
ICC's blunt reply came after PCB wrote twice to the apex body demanding the Zimbabwe-born match referee's removal from the panel at the ongoing Continental Cup. They alleged that the former player had told Salman Agha to avoid a handshake with counterpart Suryakumar and had told the two leaders to avoid the exchange of team sheets. The Men in Green had even threatened to pull out of the Asia Cup in their first letter to ICC, sent on September 15, a day after the match against India in Dubai. Following a rejection, PCB was firm with their stance and sent another email.
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Amid the tussle between the two cricketing bodies, Pakistan players were instructed to remain in their hotel rooms and not leave for their last group-stage fixture against hosts UAE on September 17. However, ICC maintained its stance that Pycroft would remain part of the Continental Cup event and would be in charge of the Pakistan vs UAE clash in Dubai.
ICC communicated to PCB, stating they found the match referee followed every rule and regulation to the 'T'. The apex body also put PCB under the bus and passed the responsibility back to ACC and the tournament officials, stating the decision about handshakes was made by the event organizers, not the ICC or the match referee. This clearly implied that ICC told PCB to take up the matter with ACC, which is also headed by PCB's Mohsin Naqvi.
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ICC's six-point rebuttal sent to PCB
1) The ICC's investigation was conducted on the basis of the information provided in the report lodged by the PCB. We took the report at Face value and noted that no supporting documentation or evidence was provided with it. The PCB had every opportunity to submit a statement from its team members alongside the initial report, but chose not to do so.
2) Following our investigation, we determined that there was no case to answer on the part of the match referee for the Misconduct. The actions that the match referee took were, following clear directions to him from the ACC Venue Manager, 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)."
3) Mr Pycroft was committed to preserving the sanctity of the toss and avoiding any potential embarrassment that might have arisen.
4) The Match Referee was not at fault in any of this.
5) 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 organizers and relevant team managers.
6) It appears that the PCB's real concern or complaint relates to the actual decision that handshakes didn't take place. The PCB should therefore direct those complaints to the tournament organizer and those who took the actual decision (which was not the Match Referee). The ICC doesn't have a role in that..
