Pakistan women’s cricket team expect that India will continue the handshake boycott when the sides meet in the 2025 ODI World Cup on Sunday.
The Pakistan women’s cricket team expects their Indian counterparts to carry on the ‘handshake boycott’ heralded by the Men in Blue in the 2025 Asia Cup. According to Telecom Asia Sport, Pakistan team manager Hina Munawar has taken guidelines from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on what the players’ stance should be for the group stage match scheduled for Sunday (October 5) in Colombo.
Other reports in India mention how neither the PCB nor the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has approached the International Cricket Council (ICC) with a decision or even as much as a query about the issue. However, the ICC has no protocols about handshakes, and it has always been a tradition, which is usually (but not always) followed by team captains at the toss and the entire squads to mark the end of the match.
The BCCI is said to have not had any conversations about this with Harmanpreet Kaur. The skipper was nudged about the many Indo-Pak controversies in the Asia Cup at the pre-tournament ICC captains’ press meet but remained non-commital.
“Well, we can only control one thing which is playing cricket on the field and we are not thinking of other things,” Harmanpreet said. “Because as cricketers, we can only control the things we have in our hand. But in other parts, I have zero control, and I don’t even take those things into my mind. We don’t even discuss those things in the dressing room. We are only here to play cricket and our focus is only on cricket,” she added.
Deepti Sharma was asked more directly during India’s ODI series against Australia but the response was similar.
“That match is far away, and when it happens, we will see what to do,” the spinning all-rounder said on Tuesday. “We are not focusing on the Asia Cup at the moment.”
The Indian men reportedly took the stance in the light of the Pahalgam terror attack and once it was executed in the group stage game, it continued.
