ICC: India had taken prior permission to wear camouflage caps

Indian cricket team at Ranchi.

What's the story?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has clarified that the Indian cricket team sought prior permission from ICC CEO Dave Richardson on Thursday to let the players participate in a charity fund-raising effort and wear army caps with the BCCI crest.

In case you didn't know...

44 CRPF lives were lost in the Pulwama terror attacks. So, as a mark of respect, the Indian cricket team decided to wear camouflage military caps and donate their match fees to the National Defence Fund.

The heart of the matter

Pakistan had raised strong objections about the kind gesture by the Indian team. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said,

The world saw that the Indian cricket team wore military caps instead of their own, did ICC not see this? We think that it is the ICC's responsibility to take notice of this without the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) bringing it up

Information Minister Fawad Choudhry also echoed similar sentiments:

"It's just not Cricket," Chaudhry tweeted in the evening, attaching a picture which showed Indian cricketers wearing the cap. "And if the Indian team will not be stopped, Pak cricket team should wear black bands to remind The World about Indian atrocities in Kashmir," Chaudhry wrote.

But ICC has now clarified that BCCI had taken prior permission from the governing body.

"The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had requested permission from ICC CEO Dave Richardson on Thursday to let the players participate in a charity fund-raising effort and wear army caps with the BCCI crest in memory of the fallen soldiers," a source in the International Cricket Council (ICC) told TOI on Saturday.

What's next?

Since ICC has clarified that BCCI had taken permission before going ahead with the plan, any protests by Pakistan cricket board (PCB) would be swiftly neglected by the governing body.