“Play in Spirit of Cricket” – Manjrekar’s Message to Suryakumar Yadav’s Team
The two countries with such a long-running rivalry, India and Pakistan, will play against each other in match number (27) of the current ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 tournament, taking place on 15 February at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The Indian team have apparently taken the position of not executing any form of handshaking with players from Pakistan either after the game is completed or when the winning team of the match is announced at the toss.
However former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar says that if the Suryakumar Yadav led Indian national cricket team indeed participates in the match versus Pakistan, he believes that they should be professional and follow all protocol procedures and adhere to the tradition of playing games in according to the spirit of cricket.
Manjrekar urges India to respect cricket spirit amid handshake controversy
"This ‘no shaking hands’ is such a silly thing that India has started. It’s unbecoming of a nation like ours. Either play properly within the spirit of the game or don’t play at all," Manjrekar opined via his official 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) handle.
In a pre-match press conference, Suryakumar earlier stated that fans would need to wait until gameday to find out if his team will shake hands with Pakistan. The team is adhering to the guidelines set forth by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The no-handshake saga dates back all the way to Asia Cup 2025, where the Indian team's pattern of not shaking hands with the Agha Salman-led squad first originated.
The teams played against each other a total of three times during the 8-team competition, including the final, where the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi did not present the Indian victors with a trophy upon conclusion. There is little cricket-related context surrounding the no-handshake incident, due to the current stability of no handshake established after Pakistan's barbaric terror attack on Pahalgam in May of 2025 and the subsequent decline in geopolitical relations between the two nations.
