Both India captain Suryakumar Yadav and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Agha shunned the traditional handshake at the toss in Sunday's Group A match of the Asia Cup, drawing headlines worldwide.
Captains have traditionally exchanged handshakes prior to international matches in the coin toss, but both Yadav and Agha did not do so and did not even make eye contact.
Following the hand over of their respective team sheets to match referee Andy Pycroft from Zimbabwe and a brief interaction with TV commentator Ravi Shastri, who was handling the toss, the captains went back to their teams.
“Every tournament has its own set of rules and regulations. There are tournaments where protocol demands that one needs to shake hands at the toss. For the record, Suryakumar Yadav didn’t shake hands with UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem during the last match’s toss also,” a BCCI source in know of things told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
This game was the first cricketing encounter between bitter rivals India and Pakistan since the April Pahalgam terror attacks, which were followed by India going over the border and instituting retaliatory military action in early May.
During the build-up to the game, the Indian camp reiterated that the team was geared towards the match. They were conscious of the prevailing emotions and sentiments but put them aside to come into the game professionally.
