Viral post from Andy Pycroft’s X account bashing Pakistani players

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team reviewed the X account to determine its authenticity.

Posts from multiple Indian users on social media platform X on September 15, 2025, were sharing the post of an account allegedly belonging to Zimbabwean cricket referee Andy Pycroft, saying he stood by his decision that raised controversy in the Asia Cup 2025 match between India and Pakistan and criticising the latter’s players. However, the account is fake.

Pakistan lodged a complaint on Sept 15 with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Pycroft’s conduct during the Asia Cup clash with India, as political tensions between the neighbours spilt onto the field. India beat Pakistan by seven wickets in Dubai on Sept 14 in the first meeting between the two sides since a four-day military conflict in May. The match, overseen by Pycroft, passed without incident but ended without the customary handshakes, intensifying the rancour between the two camps.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) alleged that Pycroft told captain Salman Ali Agha not to shake hands with Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav before the toss. No handshakes followed the game either, with Indian players heading straight into their dressing room. As a protest, Pakistan did not send their captain for post-match duties.

HOW IT STARTED

On Sept 15, an X account with the name of Pycroft reshared a post that said: “Big decision by PCB. PCB has warned ICC that Pakistan will not play in the Asia Cup if the match referee is not removed. (Geo News)”

The caption of the post said: “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.”

The post gained 1.8 million views, 2,600 reshares and 23,000 reactions.

The same post was also quoted by Indian news outlet Odisha Bytes in an article dated Sept 15, 2025, with the following title: “Pakistani cricketers brought disrepute to game: Andy Pycroft”.

The same claim was also shared by multiple users on X. The posts can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the account due to its high virality and keen public interest in the matter.

Accessing the post at 10:27am on Sept 16 showed that the account’s username was written as “90_gangadhar”. Clicking on the account to go to the main profile displayed an error with X saying: “This account doesn’t exist.”

Refreshing the account a number of times eventually opened the profile, showing it was renamed to “90_andypycroft”.

Reviewing the profile revealed numerous older posts written in Hindi or about local Indian politics or the India-Pakistan rivalry, as can be seen here, here and here. The topics or language used are hardly those to be expected from a Zimbabwean cricketer.

Conducting an advanced search on X for posts from “90_andypycrof” only showed posts from the past 13 hours, with no earlier activity traceable, whereas the account bio showed that it joined in February 2021.

In contrast, an advanced search for posts from “90_gangadhar” did display a longer posting history with multiple posts — all now displaying the name of “Andy Pycroft” and the username “90_andypycrof”.

This clearly showed that the account was renamed after the Zimbabwean cricket referee and was not his actual account.

Some users also pointed this out in the comments of some posts, saying the account had changed its username from “90_gangadhar”.

Lastly, the viral post claimed that Pycroft had reported both Ajmal and Hafeez for suspect bowling actions. However, a keyword search yielded a January 19, 2005, news report from ESPNcricinfo with the following title: “Mohammad Hafeez reported for suspect bowling action”.

As per the report, Hafeez was called for chucking during the VB Series match between Pakistan and West Indies in Brisbane on January 19, 2005, when on-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Peter Parker, third umpire Simon Taufel, and match referee Chris Broad lodged the report.

There was no mention of Pycroft in the story, and neither did a keyword search yield any information on him ever reporting Hafeez for such an action.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a post on the X account of Zimbabwean cricket referee Andy Pycroft bashes Pakistani players is false.

The account is a fake and was recently renamed after the former cricketer.

Evidence and References

Aug 28, 2025, X post:
https://archive.md/r3k4m

Aug 19, 2025, X post:
https://archive.md/WztZJ

Sept 10, 2025, X post:
https://archive.md/Q3rRU

X advanced search:
https://x.com/search?q=(from%3A90_andypycroft)&src=typed_query

X advanced search:
https://x.com/search?q=(from%3A90_gangadhar)&src=typed_query&f=top

Jan 19, 2005, ESPNcricinfo news report:
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/mohammad-hafeez-reported-for-suspect-bowling-action-145389