Suryakumar told to refrain from making political comments

Suryakumar Yadav, India's T20I captain, has been told to refrain from making comments that could be construed as political following an ICC hearing conducted by match referee Richie Richardson on Thursday in Dubai. It's not yet clear if Suryakumar faces any other sanctions.

An official hearing was necessary because the Pakistan team management had filed a complaint alleging that Suryakumar made political remarks following India's Asia Cup group-stage win over Pakistan on September 14, which the PCB's top brass had pointed out at a press conference in Lahore last week.

ESPNcricinfo understands Suryakumar's use of the term "Operation Sindoor" - a term coined by the Indian government during the military skirmish between the two countries that followed the Pahalgam terror attacks in April - was one of the PCB's points of objection.

Suryakumar had used the term at the post-match press conference following that September 14 match, while dedicating the win to the victims of the terror attacks as well as India's armed forces.

That match also caused another controversy, with Pakistan lodging a "formal protest" against match referee Andy Pycroft because he had "requested the captains not to shake hands during the toss". At the time, the PCB had demanded Pycroft to be taken off the roster for their matches, which the ICC rejected.

That incident threatened to snowball into something bigger when Pakistan didn't arrive on time for their match against UAE. They eventually relented after Pycroft apologised for the "miscommunication" over the handshake incident.

Meanwhile, India's complaint to the ICC over gestures made by Sahibzada Farhan and Haris Rauf during their Super Fours clash will be heard on Friday since Pakistan were involved in a match on Thursday evening against Bangladesh.

The gestures were made on the field during a tense game where the two sets of players exchanged words multiple times.

At a press conference ahead of Pakistan's match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, Farhan had been asked about his machine-gun celebration after reaching his half-century against India. "That celebration was just a moment at that time," he had said. "I do not do a lot of celebrations after scoring fifty. But, it suddenly came to my mind that let's do a celebration today. I did that. I don't know how people will take it. I don't care about that."