Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi kept the cricketing world in awe when he decided to take the Asia Cup 2025 Trophy back to his hotel room after Team India refused to accept the trophy in his hands on Sunday. Naqvi was present at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium for the India-Pakistan final. Following India’s five-wicket win against Pakistan, he even stepped onto the presentation stage but left the ceremony and walked out after India reiterated its stance on collecting the trophy from a ‘neutral’ official.
The final was held two days ago, and no concrete news has yet come about when and how the trophy and winners’ medals will be handed over to the Indian team, which has already returned home. However, Cricbuzz has claimed that Naqvi, also a political figure in Pakistan, has given a condition for the return of the trophy and medals to the Indian team.
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The report alleges that Naqvi has told the organisers that Suryakumar Yadav and his men would accept their medals only if there was a formal function wherein he shall be able to hand over those trophies and medals to them. Given the political relations between India and Pakistan, though, it does seem highly unlikely that such an arrangement will be made.
Earlier, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia had further criticised Naqvi for taking the trophy and medals along to the hotel room.
“We have decided not to take the trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main leaders of Pakistan. So we will not accept it from him,” the BCCI secretary told ANI. He further said that the BCCI has decided to complain to the ICC about it. “That does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him, along with the medals. It is very unfortunate, very unsporting.”
Hopefully, the trophy and the medals should be returned to India as soon as possible. That is definitely what we will be protesting for. There is an ICC conference in Dubai in the month of November or in the first week of November, and we will be putting forth a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson,” said the BCCI official.
