NEW DELHI: The uncertainty over Pakistan's participation in the remaining Asia Cup matches ended after the PCB withdrew its threat to pull out of the tournament. However, the board has sent another letter to the ICC, insisting on their demand to replace match referee Andy Pycroft with Richie Richardson for Pakistan's remaining games.

Late on Tuesday evening, the PCB reportedly sent another letter to the ICC, reiterating its demand to remove Andy Pycroft from officiating all of Pakistan's remaining matches. As of now, the ICC has not acted on the request.

Pycroft is scheduled to officiate Pakistan's must-win game against the UAE later on Wednesday evening.

The controversy erupted after India's players, led by skipper Suryakumar Yadav, refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts following Sunday's match. In protest, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha skipped the post-match presentation ceremony.

The PCB has held Pycroft responsible for the incident, alleging that he instructed Salman not to shake hands with Suryakumar and also prevented the customary exchange of team sheets between the two captains.

Suryakumar clarified that the decision to avoid handshakes with their cross-border rivals was a mark of solidarity with the victims of the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terror attack, as well as in support of the Indian Armed Forces for their retaliatory Operation Sindoor.

Pakistan, however, labelled Indian players' actions as "unsporting", while blaming Pycroft for acting in a partisan manner. The accusations were followed by a pullout threat and a formal demand to have Pycroft removed by the ICC, which rejected the plea.

Pakistan stand to lose close to USD 16 million if they act on the threat and it would also be very poor optics for the country's cricket board which is headed by the current chair of the Asian Cricket Council, Mohsin Naqvi.

In its initial letter to the ICC, PCB had stated: "The match referee failed to discharge his responsibility: to ensure that respect was extended and maintained amongst the captains as well as between the two competing sides; and to create a positive atmosphere by his conduct and encourage the captains and participating teams to do likewise.

"In fact, the match referee's instructions to the two team captains were entirely directed towards achieving the opposite result. This misconduct violates Article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Match Officials, which specifically makes it an offence for the Match Referee to conduct himself in a manner, which is contrary to the spirit of game and violates the MCC Laws."

"Given the gravity, political nature/background, and far-reaching consequences and repercussions, the misconduct has also caused disrepute to the game."

As per article 2.1.1 of ICC's Code of Conduct, "spirit of the game may be defined by reference to the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket and involves respect for, amongst others (a) the role of the umpires and (b) the game and its traditional values."

However, handshakes between rival players is a mere convention and not prescribed under any laws of the game.

Pakistan's leading daily, 'Dawn' has quoted a PCB source as saying that Pakistan team director Naveed Akram Cheema had been told that Pycroft was acting at the behest of BCCI.

"A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) source, requesting anonymity, told Dawn.com on Monday that Cheema had also approached tournament director Andy Russell with his concerns, upon which he was informed that the match referee had been acting at the behest of the BCCI," the report stated.

(With PTI Inputs)