In continuation of India’s no-handshake stance in their games against Pakistan, skippers Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana avoided the pleasantries at toss in their Women’s World Cup 2025 encounter in Colombo on Sunday (October 5).
The decision comes amid lingering tensions between the two cricket boards, following a series of controversies during the men’s Asia Cup 2025.
It began when the Indian men’s team, led by Suryakumar Yadav, refused to engage in post-match handshakes after their group-stage fixture against Pakistan. The aftermath saw Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha skipping the post-match interview with the broadcaster, followed by the PCB publicly releasing footage of their meeting with match referee Andy Pycroft. Pakistan had pushed for Pycroft’s removal to continue in the subcontinental tournament, but their impromptu meeting over the matter – a video of which surfaced – earned them an official reprimand from the tournament authorities for breaching conduct.
The discord only deepened during subsequent Super Fours game when a couple of Pakistan players indulged in pointed gestures on the field. After a hard-fought win in the final the Indian team opted not to receive their winners’ trophy from Mohsin Naqvi who currently heads both the Asian Cricket Council and PCB, in addition to serving as Pakistan’s Interior Minister. With Naqvi unwilling to delegate the presentation, the Indian players celebrated without the trophy after a prolonged delay of 90 minutes.
Whether the women’s teams will shake hands or not was a massive talking point, even clouding cricket itself, in the leadup to the World Cup encounter for which Colombo is acting as Pakistan’s neutral base. India are the designated hosts for the tournament, but the two countries don’t play on each other’s soil.
The Indian and Pakistan team began their match-day routines just as overhead skies turned from sunny to cloudy, about 90 minutes before the match’s scheduled start time. Sri Lanka’s match against Australia had been washed out after persistent rain through the evening on Saturday at the same venue.
India conducted their warm-up session on one side of the ground before some players engaged in a game of football, while Arundhati Reddy and Radha Yadav broke off for a brief bowling spell at their designated side strip.
India’s head coach Amol Majumdar addressed the team in the pre-match huddle, after which he and Harmanpreet inspected the center pitch. The pitch had been covered up before India’s first training session at the R Premadasa ground on Friday before match-day protocols, and eventually also rain, prevented them from having a look at it until Sunday.
Pakistan’s team, meanwhile, chose to warm-up by their dugout, with captain Sana addressing her players in a brief huddle.
