Handshake Controversy: Pakistan Captain Boycotts Presentation After India Defeat | Cricket News

News18

After suffering a seven-wicket loss to India, Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha boycotted the post-match presentation due to the handshake controversy in the final minutes of the game in Dubai, the Men in Green’s coach Mike Hesson said on Sunday. Hesson said that his team was willing to shake the opposition’s hands despite the defeat, but were left ‘disappointed’, and Agha’s action were a ‘flow and effect’ of that.

Agha’s opposite number, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav, hit the winning six of the game and, alongside his partner, Shivam Dube, walked off straight to the team dressing room, avoiding the customary handshake entirely. The Pakistan team hung around for a while, but the Indian side shut their change room doors. Later, at the ceremony, while pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi was present to collect an award, Agha didn’t turn up at all.

“We were ready to shake hands at the end of the game,” Hesson said in the post-match press conference. “We obviously were disappointed that our opposition didn’t do that. We sort of went over there to shake hands and they had already gone into their change rooms. It was disappointing the way the match finished. We were disappointed with the way we played, but we certainly were willing to go shake hands.”

“I think it (Agha not coming to the ceremony) is just the flow and effect of the fact that we were obviously keen to engage and shake hands at the end of the match,” Hesson said. “That didn’t happen. That was pretty much the end of it.”

The answer to India’s action lay in what Suryakumar said at the presentation. He declared the victory to India’s armed forces and expressed heartfelt solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack of April, where Pakistan-based terrorist gunmen brutally murdered 26 Indian innocents.

India kept Pakistan down to 127/9 in the first innings. In the second innings, they chased it down in just 15.5 overs, with Suryakumar leading the line with a 37-ball 47.

The two teams can still meet at least once more (at most twice) in the tournament if Pakistan qualify for the Super-Four stage.