New Delhi: A major controversy has now erupted over a purported X post by Andy Pycroft in which he allegedly lashed out at Pakistani cricketers for bringing disrepute to the game.

It now seems that Pycroft made no such comment on social media. The X post is apparently that of an Indian social media user masquerading as the former Zimbabwe batter, who is now a match referee in the Asia Cup 2025, being played in the UAE.

The fake post in Pycroft’s name actually went viral owing to the ongoing row over Sunday’s high-octane match between India and Pakistan in Dubai. After the toss, during which Pycroft was present as the match referee, Team India skipper Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Ali Agha.

Even after the match was comfortably won by India, Suryakumar and fellow batter Shivam Dube, who were at the crease, walked back to the dressing room. Unlike on other occasions, the Indian side did not come down on the field to shake hands with the Pakistanis.

Suryakumar’s statement during the interview after the awards ceremony added further fuel to the fire. After speaking about the match, the Indian skipper took the mike and said that his side stands by the families of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack and dedicated the win to them and the Indian Armed Forces.

He repeated this during the post-match presser and added that “certain things are beyond sportsmanship”, indicating that the refusal to shake hands with the Pakistanis was a result of the anger that every Indian feels for what happened at Pahalgam.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) then registered a formal complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC), demanding Pycroft’s removal from the panel of match referees for not making India shake hands.

The person posing as Pycroft on X took advantage of this situation and posted: “I stand by every decision that I took yesterday. Pakistan players have had a history of bringing disrepute to the game of cricket, be it Hafeez and Ajmal in past (reported for chucking by me) or the current bunch of players like Faheem and Abrar. So I had to take precautions.”

This message spread like wildfire, with several netizens even congratulating the match referee for the post that was later detected to be a fake.

One of the impersonator’s posts, made on June 23 reads: “Jadeja Kaisa all-rounder hai, ek ball middle ni Hui abhi tak. This was certainly not Pycroft.

It has now been ascertained that the ‘fake’ Andy Pycroft has 1,536 followers on X. While the user mostly posts on cricket, other posts are on spiritual guru Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, defence minister Rajnath Singh and podcaster Raj Shamani.