Asia Cup | Pakistan team cancels pre-match press meet

The intrigue over Pakistan’s fixture against the United Arab Emirates in Group-A of the Asia Cup intensified as it cancelled its customary pre-match media interaction less than an hour before its scheduled 7.30 p.m. start on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is understood to have rejected the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft from the remainder of the tournament. After India’s players did not shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts before or after a seven-wicket win, the PCB had sent a complaint to the ICC on Monday alleging that the “match referee had asked the captains not to shake hands at the time of the toss”.

If Pakistan had gone ahead with the press conference on the eve of the must-win game against the UAE, a number of questions would have revolved around the furore involving Pycroft. But Salman Agha’s men chose to evade such a scenario.

Pycroft stays on

At 8 p.m., the Pakistan players did turn up for a net session at the ICC Academy even as the Indian team trained at the adjacent ground. As things stand, Pycroft is the match referee for the clash between Pakistan and the UAE. In a post on X on Monday, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi had said: “The PCB has lodged a complaint with the ICC regarding violations by the Match Referee of the ICC Code of Conduct and the MCC Laws pertaining to the Spirit of Cricket. The PCB has demanded an immediate removal of the Match Referee from the Asia Cup.”

Indians train hard

Meanwhile, it was business as usual for the Indian team at the ICC Academy as all the players turned up for a high-intensity training session ahead of Friday’s game against Oman in Abu Dhabi. The evening began with the players loosening up with some stretching and sprinting exercises. Once the nets began, the focus was notably on the middle-order batters getting a good workout. In India’s wins against the UAE and Pakistan, modest targets meant that much of the batting unit wasn’t really tested.

The likes of Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma and Axar Patel went about finding their rhythm with long stints.