![\"Pakistan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/624725_4304933_updates.jpg\")
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Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi meets\u00a0national team players in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September 20, 2025. \u2014 Screengrab via X\/@TheRealPCBMedia<\/p>\n
On the eve of Pakistan\u2019s high-stakes Asia Cup clash with India, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman (PCB) Mohsin Naqvi met the squad for a morale-boosting session and held separate talks with head coach Mike Hesson during training at ICC Academy\u2019s Oval Two in Dubai.<\/p>\n
Team manager Naveed Akram Cheema stood nearby as Naqvi and Hesson spoke at length before the captain joined them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The players maintained their drills with renewed energy, their spirits lifted by the chairman\u2019s show of support ahead of Sunday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Indian support staff and three Indian players, who had been training at Oval One, wrapped up their session and quietly left the ground soon after Naqvi arrived.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Pakistani and Indian fans welcomed the Pakistan team upon their arrival at the ICC Academy. Indian supporters also took photos with Pakistani batter Fakhar Zaman.<\/p>\n
The meeting comes in the backdrop of the \u201chandshake controversy\u201d that followed Pakistan\u2019s earlier clash with India, which attracted considerable attention both on and off the field.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the Pakistan cricket team cancelled its scheduled pre-match press conference. The decision was officially confirmed today (Saturday), although the team management gave no reason.<\/p>\n
A Pakistani player or a member of the support staff was supposed to address the media at 6 pm local time, but it was called off. <\/p>\n
India won the September 14 group match by seven wickets in Dubai and afterwards refused to shake hands with their opponents, angering Pakistan.<\/p>\n
It was the first meeting between the neighbours since a four-day armed conflict in May left more than 70 people dead.<\/p>\n
The Pakistan Cricket Board protested with the International Cricket Council (ICC), saying that match referee Andy Pycroft had told skipper Salman Agha not to approach Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav for a handshake at the toss.<\/p>\n
The PCB demanded that Pycroft be removed from their matches and threatened to withdraw from the eight-team T20I competition.<\/p>\n
Their last group game was held up for an hour before the PCB said Pycroft had apologised, and the match, with the Zimbabwean in charge, eventually went ahead.<\/p>\n
According to the PCB, Pycroft described the incident as a result of miscommunication. The ICC has indicated its willingness to conduct a formal inquiry into the alleged breach of the code of conduct.<\/p>\n
Pakistan beat the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, to qualify for the next stage, the Super Fours, and set up another meeting with India in Dubai.<\/p>\n
Indian media reported that the team plans to stick to its no-handshake policy for Sunday’s clash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi meets\u00a0national team players in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September 20, 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-149906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}