Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia said the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian side will follow all rules in their Sunday’s clash against Pakistan in the 2025 Women’s World Cup, but there are no assurances of any handshakes or mingling between the sides in Colombo.
Suryakumar Yadav’s men’s team first skipped handshakes in the recent 2025 Asia Cup in light of the Pahalgam terror attack, carrying it through to the final. Whether the women follow suit remains uncertain.
“I cannot forecast anything, but our relationship with that particular hostile country is the same, there is no change in the last week,” Saikia told BBC Stumped. “India will play that match against Pakistan in Colombo, and all cricket protocols will be
followed. I can only assure that whatever is in the MCC regulations of cricket, that will be done. Whether there will be handshakes, whether there will be hugging, I cannot assure you of anything at this moment.”
Meanwhile, news agency PTI quoted a BCCI official as outright rejecting any chance of handshakes between the teams.
“The BCCI is aligned with the government and there will be no customary handshake at the toss, no photo-shoot with the match referee, and no end-of-game handshakes. The policy followed by the men will also be implemented by the women,” the quoted source said.
According to Pakistani media, the Women in Green are preparing for the possibility that India may continue the boycott, and their team manager, Hina Munawar, has sought guidance from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) over the next steps.
Indian media reports suggest that neither the PCB nor the BCCI has raised the matter with the ICC, which has no official rule on handshakes. While customary, handshakes are not mandatory, usually happening at the toss between captains and at the end of matches.
So far, the BCCI has not briefed captain Harmanpreet Kaur on any specific stance. Asked about Indo-Pak tensions at the ICC captains’ press meet, Harmanpreet avoided controversy.
“As cricketers, we can only control what happens on the field,” she said. “We don’t think about things outside our control or even discuss them in the dressing room. Our focus is only on cricket.”
India and Pakistan have met sparingly in women’s cricket — 11 ODIs and 16 T20Is — with India dominant. Pakistan have never beaten them in ODIs and hold just three wins in T20Is.
