Pakistan has decided not to pull out of the Asia Cup, but it continues to object to Andy Pycroft as match referee. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent another letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) late on Tuesday, demanding that Pycroft be replaced with Richie Richardson for Pakistan’s remaining matches.
In its initial letter to the ICC, the PCB had said, "The match referee failed to discharge his responsibility: to ensure that respect was extended and maintained amongst the captains as well as between the two competing sides; and to create a positive atmosphere by his conduct and encourage the captains and participating teams to do likewise.”
Also read: Afridi takes on Modi govt but praises Rahul Gandhi’s stand
The PCB further said in its letter, “In fact, the match referee's instructions to the two team captains were entirely directed towards achieving the opposite result. This misconduct violates Article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for match officials, which specifically makes it an offence for the match referee to conduct himself in a manner, which is contrary to the spirit of game and violates the MCC Laws. "Given the gravity, political nature/background, and far-reaching consequences and repercussions, the misconduct has also caused disrepute to the game.”
As per article 2.1.1 of the ICC's Code of Conduct, "spirit of the game may be defined by reference to the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket and involves respect for, amongst others (a) the role of the umpires and (b) the game and its traditional values". However, handshakes between rival players are only a convention and not prescribed under any laws of the game.
A leading Pakistan daily quoted a PCB source as saying that Pakistan team director Naveed Akram Cheema had been told that Pycroft was acting at the BCCI’s behest. It is learnt that Cheema had also approached tournament director Andy Russell in this regard.
Follow us
