It’s seen on village greens and in Test arenas alike. It’s there at the start of the game, just after the coin toss, and it’s there at the end when the final run is struck or wicket falls. According to research from the University of Dundee it should last between one-and-a-half and three seconds, just long enough to reassure both participants but not so long as to feel overbearing. In the tapestry of the sport it’s less consequential than the colour of the captain’s socks or what the home team has laid out for tea. And yet its absence is instantly conspicuous, sometimes enough to spark controversy, fines or even diplomatic fallout.
The most recent reminder came this month. India had just beaten Pakistan in the Asia Cup by seven wickets, but there was no post-match handshake. No nods, no pats on the back. Just players collecting kit and heading for the tunnel. The omission was deafening. Within hours, clips of the “no-handshake” were being dissected frame by frame online. #Handshakegate was trending. The Pakistan Cricket Board lodged a formal complaint with the Asian Cricket Council and Indian officials replied that handshakes are a custom, not a law, and soon enough a match referee found himself in the headlines. And on Sunday, doubling down on their stance, India again kept their hands firmly in their pockets. For a gesture meant to signal closure, this one had opened an international row.
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Related: ‘Cricket diplomacy’ collapses as India-Pakistan hostility enters field of play
India’s captain, Suryakumar Yadav, was clear that the snub was a consequence of recent border tensions between the two nuclear powers. In April, 26 civilians were killed in a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. The Indian government blamed Pakistan and launched a counterstrike in response. Fighter planes were shot down and holy sites were damaged. Against that backdrop, the absence of handshakes was hardly just a matter of etiquette. It became shorthand for a wider political freeze.
Cricket has always carried a freight beyond bat and ball: a handshake at the end of a match is supposed to mean that whatever has transpired stays on the field. When the hands stay unshaken, it signals something else entirely. The MCC’s Spirit of Cricket preamble calls on players to “respect opponents” and play hard but fair, and the handshake is its simplest, most visible embodiment.
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History is dotted with moments when the clasp of palms stood for something more grand. The coming together of Richie Benaud and Frank Worrell after the first tied Test between Australia and the West Indies in 1960 helped forge a rivalry and signal the sport’s expansion beyond its traditional centres. That West Indies team, led by Worrell, was the first to be captained for an entire series by a black cricketer, a moment that challenged the old hierarchies of empire and proved that players from the islands could not only compete with but thrill the cricketing world.
In 1987 Pakistan’s General Zia-ul-Haq flew to Jaipur for what was dubbed “cricket diplomacy”, exchanging handshakes with India’s prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, at a time when their nations were on the brink of conflict. And in Mohali in 2011, Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani walked on to the outfield before the World Cup semi-final to greet both teams. For a few hours the game became a proxy for détente, the handshake a stand-in for a peace summit.
If those are handshakes as olive branches, cricket has also given us handshakes as icons. Twenty years ago, in an Ashes bursting with enduring images, Andrew Flintoff stooped to shake Brett Lee’s hand after England’s two-run win at Edgbaston. Winner and loser are indistinguishable as two exhausted heroes shared a moment of mutual respect. It’s the spirit of cricket in one frame, captured by the Guardian’s Tom Jenkins.
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The history of cricket handshakes has its flashpoints, and 2023 delivered three that crackled like live wires. In February, Scotland refused post-match handshakes with Nepal’s Sandeep Lamichhane in protest while he faced sexual-coercion charges (a subsequent rape conviction was quashed on appeal in 2024). In May, Virat Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq Murid’s Indian Premier League handshake flared into a glare-off that drew fines before the pair reconciled during the World Cup in October. And in November, after Angelo Mathews became the first batter ever timed out at a one-day World Cup, Sri Lanka’s players declined to shake hands with Bangladesh, exacerbating an already simmering feud between the sides.
Then there was Old Trafford in July this year. With India’s Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar – both in the 90s – batting for a draw, Ben Stokes decided enough was enough. The England captain extended a stiff right hand to bring the game to a premature end but the pair declined, opting to continue their pursuit of deserving centuries. At stumps, a brief clip appeared to show Stokes refusing to shake Jadeja’s hand. Within hours the moment had been edited, captioned, and turned into a referendum on the spirit of cricket. Later footage showed the two did shake hands at the presentation, but by then the narrative had run away: the snub, real or imagined, had become the story.
Why does this matter? Social psychologists have shown that a handshake shapes first impressions, signalling trust, confidence and respect. And cricket, forever a slave to ritual and the impression of decency, has turned this seemingly inconsequential gesture into something important. No wonder a missing handshake feels like a violation of an unspoken contract, not just between individuals or nations, but against cricket itself.
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Blind Cricket’s public appeal
The UK’s visually impaired women’s team has named a 15-player squad for the inaugural Blind Cricket Women’s Twenty20 World Cup, scheduled for November in India and Nepal, but they still need help to get there. The trip is expected to cost £60,000. One benefactor has pledged £30,000 and public donations have added about £7,500 so far, leaving a significant gap to close in the coming weeks.
John Garbett, the UK Women & Girls VI Cricket programme manager, confirmed his squad early this month, acknowledging a competitive process: “There were some tough decisions for the selection panel. We have selected 15 players and the rest of the training squad will be on standby as reserves.”
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If funding is secured, the UK will compete against Australia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the USA in a landmark event for women’s VI sport. The squad spans all sight classifications: B1 (totally blind) Atia Aslam, Camile Elliott-Kamara, Hannah Young, Helen Lawson, Sami Begum, Susan Hookway; B2 (low-sighted) Alison Heasman, Jess Lowe, Leanne Harvey, Lois Turner; B3 (other registered blind) Georgie Ridgway, Kathryn Jelfs-White, Laura Brooks, Minerva Ainsworth, Sharnie Mabey.
Blind Cricket England and Wales (BCEW) has launched a public appeal to bridge the remaining shortfall. Donations can be made via the team’s JustGiving page, and potential partners or supporters are invited to get in touch.
Momentum on the field is strong. After a last-ball win for Sussex Sharks over London Metro in the Blind Cricket England & Wales (BCEW) Cup final at Hove this month, the Sussex chair, Jon Filby, said: “This ground has seen the best players put in some epic performances on it. I have been watching cricket here for years and I have seen fewer games that were better than that.” It was the kind of occasion that underlined why visually impaired players deserve a global stage.
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For more information or to offer support, contact BCEW’s treasurer at BCEWscorer@gmail.com or 020 7232 0939.
Quote of the week
We are a very different team” – England’s fledgling captain Nat Sciver-Brunt says the side has moved on since the Ashes debacle that saw off her predecessor Heather Knight as the one-day squad prepares for the upcoming World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Memory lane
Meetings between Pakistan and India are always noteworthy but few can rival their clash in the inaugural T20 World Cup final in 2007. Set 158 to win at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, Pakistan stumbled to 77 for six before Misbah-ul-Haq hit Harbhajan Singh for three sixes in an over to bring his team within touching distance. With no wickets in hand and with only three balls left, he crouched low as he tried to scoop Jogunder Sharma over short fine leg. It was the wrong shot at the worst possible time. Sreesanth gobbled the catch and India won by five runs.
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And it’s the final round of the County Championship. Join Tanya Aldred now on the liveblog from day one’s action.
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