After facing humiliation at the hands of India in the Asia Cup, Pakistan has made a strange demand. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that a decision should be taken immediately to remove match referee Andy Pycroft from the tournament.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday accused match referee Andy Pycroft of violating the ICC Code of Conduct during the Asia Cup 2025 match against India and demanded his immediate removal from the tournament. 69-year-old Pycroft, a former Zimbabwean cricketer, was the match referee in the match between India and Pakistan, in which the Indian players did not shake hands with the opposing team after the match ended. The PCB has lodged a formal complaint against Pycroft with the ICC. However, the tournament is being organized not by the ICC but by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi wrote on Instagram, "The PCB has lodged a complaint against the match referee for violating the MCC rules related to the spirit of cricket and the ICC Code of Conduct. PCB has demanded immediate removal of the match referee from Asia Cup.'' Naqvi is also the current ACC president. Pakistan had earlier raised the issue before the Asian Cricket Council and termed the Indian players' behaviour as against the spirit of sportsmanship. PCB had earlier said in a statement, ''Team manager Naveed Cheema has strongly opposed the behaviour of Indian players who did not shake hands after the match. This is against the spirit of sportsmanship and the game. As a protest, we did not send our captain to the post-match ceremony.''

This issue has now escalated which started with the coin toss in the Group A match when Suryakumar and Pakistan captain Salman Aga did not shake hands with each other. PCB has claimed that referee Pycroft had asked both the captains not to follow the tradition of shaking hands before the match. Indian captain Suryakumar and Pakistan's Salman Ali Aga did not even look at each other. The two teams may clash twice more in the Asia Cup and India may repeat the policy of not shaking hands in the future as well.

Suryakumar had earlier said that not shaking hands with the opposition team was his way of showing solidarity with the families of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. This was the first cricket match between India and Pakistan after the terror attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir in April that killed 26 tourists and the Indian Army's 'Operation Sindoor' on terror camps in Pakistan.