The India-Pakistan rivalry once again was filled with controversies in the Asia Cup, but this time the drama ran much deeper than the boundary ropes. Suryakumar Yadav’s side showed grit by refusing the customary post-match handshake with Pakistan and, taking a big shot in the arm, refused to take the trophy from ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi who is also the PCB chief and a minister in Pakistan. Naqvi, who is notorious for his anti-India comments, was left cold as the Indian side made a forceful assertion on and off the pitch.
Reacting to the controversy, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia launched a scathing attack on Naqvi’s behaviour during the presentation. He labelled the act of walking away with the Asia Cup trophy and medals as “unsportsmanlike” and confirmed that India will formally raise the matter at the ICC conference in Dubai. Saikia made it clear that the BCCI would not let such conduct slide unchallenged.
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“India is fighting a war with a country, and a leader belonging to that country was supposed to hand over the trophy to us…We cannot accept a trophy from a person who represents a country that is waging a war against our country. So we have refused to take that trophy, but that does not mean that the gentleman will take the trophy and the medals, which are to be given to our country, to his own hotel room. That is totally unexpected, and we hope that his good sense will prevail. We are going to lodge a very strong protest against the behaviour of the gentleman in today’s prize distribution ceremony,” Saikia told ANI.
“We have decided not to take the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main leaders of Pakistan. So we decided not to take it from him. But that does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him, along with the medals. So it is very unfortunate and unsportsmanlike, and we hope that the trophy and the medals will be returned to India as soon as possible. There is an ICC conference in November in Dubai. In the next conference, we are going to launch a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson,” he added.
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In the field, though, India displayed grit and calm in a nail-biting chase. Tilak Varma was the hero of the day, holding fort with an unbeaten 69 off 53 balls as wickets fell around him. His pressure-building partnerships kept India in contention. Rinku Singh finally struck the winning boundary to seal a historic win and India’s ninth Asia Cup crown though ironically without the trophy in hand.
