Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi has finally addressed the controversy surrounding the board's decision to not boycott the Asia Cup 2025 match against UAE despite giving threats to ICC. The PCB was left fuming after the "no-handshake" incident after the India vs Pakistan match which led to the PCB demanding Pycroft's exclusion from the tournament.
Tensions escalated before the match against UAE started, with PCB trying to make efforts to ditch it in order to have Pycroft replaced. The match was also delayed by one hour and during this time Naqvi reportedly held urgent discussions with former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and Najam Sethi regarding the consequences of pulling out.
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Further PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi addressed the issue and broke his silence on the reason behind Pakistan playing match against UAE despite boycott threats.
“As you all know, there has been a crisis going on since 14th September. We had objections about the role of the match referee. Just a short while back, the match referee had a conversation with the team coach, captain and manager. He said that this incident (no handshakes) should not have happened. We had also requested the ICC earlier to set up an inquiry into the code violation during the match,” Naqvi told reporters on Wednesday.
“We believe that politics and sports can’t go together. This is sports, and let it remain a sport. Cricket should be separate from all this. I requested Sethi Saab and Rameez Raja Saab. If we had to go for a boycott, which was a very big decision, the prime minister, government officials, and lots of other people were also involved, and we got their full support. We were monitoring the issue,” he added.