‘My job is to be the judge’: Meet Andy Pycroft, match referee under fire for Asia Cup game between India and Pakistan | Cricket News

What’s Pycroft’s connection with the infamous ball tampering Test between Australia and South Africa in 2018?

Andy Pycroft was the match referee during Australia’s infamous sandpaper gate Test in Cape Town against South Africa. It was Pycroft who handed Australia’s captain Steve Smith a one-Test ban and a fine of 100 percent of his match fee. He also fined Cameron Bancroft 75% of match fee and three demit points. The cameras had caught Bancroft with a piece of sandpaper that he was applying on the ball to tamper it. It led to a huge furore in Australia with CA eventually banning Smith and David Warner for 12 months each, while Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension.

When did he get to know about the tampering?

Here it is in his own words: “No, we didn’t know what was going on. We picked from TV. Every single ball tampering incident we have had in the last 10 years has been picked up by TV, I am afraid to say. And 90% of the time it’s been by the host broadcaster against the visiting side. Never has a local side caught ball tampering,” Pycroft told a podcast ‘Dean at Stumps’.

“When TV picked it up (in the Cape Town test), I was immediately, ‘oh this is not allright’. The Australian manager was outstanding. He came right through and said, ‘that doesn’t look too right’. [The manager was Gavin Dovey]. Let me say this to you, they (Australians) admitted what they had done very quickly – in the circumstances where they weren’t only people messing with the ball over that period of time and there is no need to go further into that. … We didn’t even know Steve Smith was involved as we didn’t know about it. If he hadn’t admitted, we wouldn’t have fined him.

Yes, it’s disappointing when ball tampering happens. There are big advantages to sides if we don’t police it. Sides have lots to gain, there is lots of money at stake, and these things happen when you want to win at all costs, which is unfortunate at times.

Didn’t he also officiate Australia’s return series in South Africa a couple of years later?

He was and he had planned how to go about it. Here it is in his own words: “This was the first visit after Warner and Smith’s bans. I knew how sensitive the situation was going to be. I knew how Smith and Warner were going to be subject to stuff from spectators. So I sat with Australians pre tour and discussed what their fears were. Similarly with South Africa and security, trying to work out a protocol what was going to be acceptable. In the first game at Wanderers, I see banners with references to ‘where you can buy sandpaper’ – that is humorous. There were also banners with abusive messages. So I immediately sent security to confiscate it,”Pycroft said in that podcast.

Was Pycroft involved in the Kohli shoulder barging Sam Konstas incident?

Yes he was the match referee during the Boxing Day Test in end December between Australia and India. It’s the game when Virat Kohli shoulder-barged Sam Konstas and a certain section of Australian media, former players and fans were miffed that Pycroft didn’t hand Kohli a one-Test ban at the very least. But it was because of a development post the sandpaper gate that had led to Pycroft charging Kohli with a more lenient level-one offence for “inappropriate physical contact”.

Just after the ball tampering scandal Test, a raft of changes were made to the game, and one of them was about physical contact. Until then, it was an automatic level-2 offence which comes with a possibility of a ban. But now level-one was the only option available to Pycroft as that was changed in the months after the Cape Town Test. The authorities had placed heavier penalties for ball tampering post that incident, but also introduced lesser charges for physical contact. So Pycroft was right, playing according to the rules to slap a light punishment on Kohli.

Why didn’t he penalise Marlon Samuels vs Ben Stokes incident in 2015 Test?

Yes, he was the match referee during England’s second Test in Grenada against West Indies in 2015 when Ben Stokes and Marlon Samuels had an episode. During the first innings, when Stokes holed out, hitting Bishoo to deep midwicket, Samuels clasped his sunhat on his chest, and gave him a salute. Pycroft himself has spoken about it in a podcast ‘Dean at Stumps’.

“Ben Stokes was one of those who got red mist quickly, and could overstep. He was always the one we had to advise to pull back. On the other side we had a West Indian cricketer who was cool and calm but could provoke Stokes. Stokes was getting rattled. I don’t want to name that West Indian cricketer. I remember telling Ben Stokes that you have to pull yourself back. When he came to bat, that west Indian came to bowl – I will give you a clue, he was an offspinner. He blocked everything. But got out caught at boundary next over to another spinner. And he got red mist, we could see. But now Stokes has to walk past that cricketer, who is standing in position of rear admiral taking a salute, and he was literally saluting as Stokes walked past. I am on the radio with the umpires, ‘watch watch, something is going to happen’. Nothing happened. They passed. It was funny. Within 5 minutes, I got a call from ICC. What am I going to do? I said nothing, we are still laughing here.”

Why didn’t Pycroft initially fine Jos Buttler after his foul-mouthed abuse at Philander in a Test in 2020?

Pycroft was the match referee during a game between England and South Africa, when Jos Buttler, who was the wicketkeeper, abused the South African Vernon Philander, with words like F****** Knobhead” and such used, and could be heard on stump mike. But Pycroft presents an interesting twist.

“My job is to be the judge of any situation. It’s the umpires who make the reports.. The third umpire was next to me in the room, right next to the monitor but he couldn’t hear what was said even though Buttler was right behind the stumps and there was a stump microphone there. The players all know that if there is any swear word that comes through that mike, particularly if there is a capital F and capital C, they would be coded, and you will lose at least 15% of your fee. Buttler is right behind there, giving him grief but we don’t know what’s being said.

Next morning I get a mail from the ICC office, ‘what you going to do about this’ and I go ‘what you talking about?’. To cut a long story short, even though we couldn’t hear anything, it had to come over on TV and I don’t know why there was a difference between what came over from the stump mike to us, and what went to TV. There is an explanation, but it’s quite technical. It was all over social media, by the time I saw it for the first time, those words were audible and those words weren’t the ones you don’t want to be publicising with kids hearing. So we had to grab the umpires who were leaving the airport for home, and told them you have to file. We need to take action. So, sometimes you don’t know what is happening at the moment.”

What were the highlights of Pycroft’s playing career?

He played just three Tests and 20 Odis for Zimbabwe. Incidentally, his Test debut was in Harare against India, where he scored 39 and 46 runs respectively in the two innings. It was also Zimbabwe’s first Test, and he was past his prime by then. His ODI debut had come almost 10 years earlier in the 1983 world cup. Incidentally, Pycroft played in the game where Kapil Dev starred with his 175.