{"id":51314,"date":"2025-09-17T20:21:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?p=51314"},"modified":"2025-09-17T20:21:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:51:53","slug":"pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dubai: Pakistan\u2019s Asia Cup campaign witnessed fresh drama on Wednesday after the national team refused to leave their hotel in protest against the International Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) decision to retain Andy Pycroft as match referee. The players eventually left for the stadium, but the match against the UAE will begin an hour late, sources told PTI.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Pakistan had remained adamant on their demand for Pycroft\u2019s removal. This was the second time the ICC rejected their request. The controversy stems from Sunday\u2019s group match against India, when Pakistani players accused Pycroft of instructing skipper Salman Ali Agha not to shake hands with Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav in solidarity with victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. The team also alleged Pycroft blocked the customary exchange of team sheets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Pakistan does not take the field, full points will be awarded to the UAE,\u201d a tournament source said. The UAE squad has already arrived at the stadium, and a walkover would secure their place in the Super Four stage.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) directed players to \u201cstay in their rooms and wait for further instructions\u201d before the team finally departed. Pycroft, a 69-year-old former Zimbabwe cricketer, remains listed as the official match referee for the fixture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dubai: Pakistan\u2019s Asia Cup campaign witnessed fresh drama on Wednesday after the national team refused to leave their hotel in protest against the International Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) decision to retain Andy Pycroft as match referee. The players eventually left for the stadium, but the match against the UAE will begin an hour late, sources told [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":51315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,19,209],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-latest","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dubai: Pakistan\u2019s Asia Cup campaign witnessed fresh drama on Wednesday after the national team refused to leave their hotel in protest against the International Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) decision to retain Andy Pycroft as match referee. The players eventually left for the stadium, but the match against the UAE will begin an hour late, sources told [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PunjabENews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T14:51:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"punjabenews19\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"punjabenews19\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/\",\"name\":\"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-17T14:51:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/e6d377add6c27bb463e089e4c38b28df\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":514},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/\",\"name\":\"PunjabENews\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/e6d377add6c27bb463e089e4c38b28df\",\"name\":\"punjabenews19\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc46b6b05854fe5941459294f5404befdac25139e9016a9ed7cd92db0d05cd9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc46b6b05854fe5941459294f5404befdac25139e9016a9ed7cd92db0d05cd9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"punjabenews19\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/author\/punjabenews19\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews","og_description":"Dubai: Pakistan\u2019s Asia Cup campaign witnessed fresh drama on Wednesday after the national team refused to leave their hotel in protest against the International Cricket Council\u2019s (ICC) decision to retain Andy Pycroft as match referee. The players eventually left for the stadium, but the match against the UAE will begin an hour late, sources told [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/","og_site_name":"PunjabENews","article_published_time":"2025-09-17T14:51:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":770,"height":514,"url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"punjabenews19","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"punjabenews19","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/","url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/","name":"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late - PunjabENews","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-17T14:51:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/e6d377add6c27bb463e089e4c38b28df"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot_2025_0917_154724.jpg","width":770,"height":514},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/pakistan-players-delay-departure-in-protest-against-icc-decision-match-against-uae-set-to-start-late\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pakistan players delay departure in protest against ICC decision, match against UAE set to start late"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#website","url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/","name":"PunjabENews","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/e6d377add6c27bb463e089e4c38b28df","name":"punjabenews19","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc46b6b05854fe5941459294f5404befdac25139e9016a9ed7cd92db0d05cd9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc46b6b05854fe5941459294f5404befdac25139e9016a9ed7cd92db0d05cd9c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"punjabenews19"},"url":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/author\/punjabenews19\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51316,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51314\/revisions\/51316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}