ICC Investigates Pakistan for Alleged Rule Breaches During Asia Cup, Including Filming Ban Violation

The ICC is considering action against Pakistan for "violation of multiple tournament rules" prior to their Asia Cup match against the UAE that was delayed by the team to protest the world body's rejection of its demand to remove match referee Andy Pycroft. The ICC has shot off an e-mail to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) citing "misconduct" and "multiple violations" of the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA) protocol before the game held on Wednesday.

"The ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta has written to the PCB stating that the board has been guilty of repeated PMOA violations on match day. PCB is in receipt of the e-mail," a tournament source told PTI.

It is learnt that despite several warnings, Pakistan breached the rules by allowing media manager Naeem Gillani to film a meeting between Pycroft, its head coach Mike Hesson and captain Salman Ali Agha before the toss.

The ICC had made it clear that media managers were barred from such meetings.

VIOLATION OF PLAYERS AND MATCH OFFICIALS AREA

ICC agreed with PCB that, in order to help resolve the matter (handshake row) related to the toss on September 15, Andy Pycroft would meet the team captain and manager before the toss of Wednesday's match.

"The purpose was to eradicate any regrettable misunderstanding or miscommunication which may have arisen at the time of the toss," the tournament source said.

"PCB brought to the meeting their media manager and insisted that he be present during the conversation," he added.

The media manager was refused entry by the ICC Anti-Corruption Manager because he wanted to take his mobile phone into the PMOA, which is tightly regulated.

The source said that the PCB threatened to withdraw from the match if the media manager was not allowed to attend and then insisted on filming (without audio) the conversation, which was a "further violation of the PMOA regulations."

"The ICC, in order to preserve the interest of the sport, the tournament and the stakeholders involved accepted PCB's requests, although this demonstrated a complete disregard for the sanctity of the PMOA, where the meeting took place," the source said.

The ICC was also not made aware of how PCB planned to use the filmed footage.

The world body has also taken exception to a PCB media release that claimed Pycroft had "apologised", when, in fact, he had merely expressed regret over a miscommunication.

Earlier, PCB media manager Waseem was denied entry into a subsequent meeting inside the PMOA, where filming is strictly prohibited.