Cricket: Indian team refuses to accept Asia Cup winners’ trophy from Pakistani official

The Indian men’s cricket team on Sunday refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy from Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also Pakistan’s interior minister and chief of the country's cricket board, PTI reported.

India secured a five-wicket victory over Pakistan during the final match of the tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia alleged that Naqvi walked away with the Asia Cup trophy and the individual medals of the winning team after they refused to accept the award from him, reported The Indian Express.

Saikia added that the BCCI would register a protest against Naqvi at the International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai in the first week of November, according to The Hindu.

In a post-match briefing, Indian team captain Suryakumar Yadav said he had never seen a winning team “not getting a trophy”.

“We deserved it,” he said. “The real trophies are my 14 colleagues and they will stay in my memory.”

Saikia stated that although the Indian team refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi, it “does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy along with the medals”, reported The Indian Express.

The BCCI official described Naqvi’s actions as being “unfortunate, very unsporting” and said he hoped that the trophy and the medals would be returned to India.

According to The Indian Express, the Indian team’s decision not to accept the award from Naqvi was triggered after he reposted an image on social media that portrayed Pakistani players in flight suits with fighter jets in the background, captioned “Final Day”.

On Wednesday, Naqvi had also posted a video of football player Cristiano Ronaldo celebrating a goal with a gesture of an aircraft being brought down, similar to the gesture made by Pakistani pacer Haris Rauf.

Naqvi’s X account is blocked in India.

Rauf’s gesture during a match on September 21 was an apparent reference to claims by the Pakistani military that it had shot down Indian aircraft on May 7, when the four-day conflict between India and Pakistan began, following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22 that left 26 persons dead and 16 injured.

The claims made by Islamabad have not been independently verified.

India has acknowledged suffering aircraft losses during the initial phase of the conflict, but has not disclosed the number of planes lost.

After the Super 4 stage match between India and Pakistan on September 21, the BCCI filed a complaint against Rauf and his teammate Sahibzada Farhan for their allegedly provocative gestures during the game.

During the match, Farhan had celebrated his half-century with a gun-firing gesture, using his bat as a gun prop.

The Pakistan Cricket Board had also filed a complaint against the Indian team captain after he expressed his solidarity with those who died in the Pahalgam terror attack and dedicated the Indian team’s victory against Pakistan after a match on September 14 to the Indian military.

Throughout the tournament, Indian players had refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling.

Amid the spiralling tensions, the Indian military struck about a dozen air bases and defence installations in Pakistan on May 10, and claimed to have shot down five Pakistani jets. Hours later, the two countries reached an “understanding” to halt firing.

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