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Revealed: Why Pakistan Wasn't Punished Despite Deliberately Delaying Asia Cup Match Vs UAE

Anurag Dasgupta

Why Pakistan wasn't punished [Source: AFP Photo] Why Pakistan wasn't punished [Source: AFP Photo]

The Asia Cup 2025 was supposed to be a brilliant cricket tournament where eight teams would have competed to be crowned the Asian champions, but the event was turned into a mockery by the Pakistan cricket team, as they decided to boycott their game against the UAE, and the reason was that Indian players didn’t shake hands with Pakistan cricketers.

The controversy that happened before PAK Vs UAE game

Due to the terror attack on Pahalgam in April 2025, the Indian cricket team decided to play the Asia Cup match against Pakistan, but they didn’t want to interact with them as Suryakumar Yadav and his troops ignored the Men in Green, and this infuriated Pakistan.

Eventually, PCB wrote a letter to the ICC as they filed an official complaint against match referee, Andy Pycroft. When the ICC rejected the plea, the PCB decided to boycott the match against the UAE and didn’t turn up for the game on time. However, they took a U-turn at the last moment and decided to play the match, as the match timings had been pushed forward by one hour.

The UAE side had to wait for more than two hours for the game to begin, and now the question arises, why wasn’t Pakistan punished for breaking the rules?.

Why Pakistan wasn't punished for not showing up at the stadium?

Interestingly, the match referee, Andy Pycroft, was the centre of attraction as the controversy surrounded him, and he was involved in lengthy meetings with PCB and ACC officials. In cricket, if a team breaks a rule, which in this case Pakistan has committed, then the referee has a choice to impose a fine or punish the team. But since Pycroft was himself involved in negotiations with the concerned authority, leverage was given to the Pakistan team.

Also, the PCB Chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, is also the Chairman of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), and it was he who organised an emergency meeting with Pycroft to settle the issues, and hence, there was no fine or punishment given to the Men in Green.