Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president Mohsin Naqvi has refused to hand over the Asia Cup 2025 trophy to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) despite a tense meeting on Tuesday in which the Indian cricket board officials forced the Pakistani administrator to congratulate India on their victory when he deliberately tried to avoid it.
Naqvi, who is also the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Interior Minister of his country, and BCCI officials, including vice-president Rajeev Shukla and former treasurer Ashish Shelar, were engaged in a heated verbal battle during the meeting as the Indian board accused him of wrongfully holding onto the Asia Cup 2025 trophy.
Naqvi hurt at being made to look ’like a cartoon’
It was during this conversation that Naqvi revealed why he decided to leave the Dubai International Stadium with the trophy on Sunday after the Indian team r efused to take the silverware from him. Naqvi said that he was not informed about Team India’s boycott in advance and went to the podium to complete his duty as the ACC president.
Naqvi added that Suryakumar Yadav and his players not turning up to collect the trophy after beating Pakistan by five wickets in the final made him look “like a cartoon” as he kept waiting on the stage, a BCCI source told news agency PTI.
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As reported earlier by us, Shukla and Shelar told Naqvi that the Asia Cup 2025 trophy should be moved to the ACC office in Dubai from Naqvi’s hotel and BCCI would get it collected later.
“Shukla and Shelar categorically said that the trophy should be handed over to the winning team. It is an ACC trophy and doesn’t belong to an individual. Naqvi did not say no to it, he was passing the buck,” the BCCI source added.
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More ShortsHowever, Naqvi did not look keen on discussing the matter and kept diverting the discussion.
“Naqvi insisted that the matter should not be discussed in the AGM and should be brought up separately at some other time. The single - point agenda of the meeting was to elect a Vice-Chairman but even that was deferred.”
Naqvi started the meeting by congratulating Mongolia (new member) and Nepal (for the recent T20I series win over West Indies), but did not wish India on winning the Asia Cup 2025. He was then interrupted by BCCI officials, who forced him to congratulate the Men In Blue.
The situation got so serious that Shelar logged out of the meeting in anger before making a U-turn and making his thoughts clear.
Shukla and Shelar have also threatened Naqvi with possible ICC action as BCCI prepares to complain to him with the global body.
A separate meeting of Test-playing boards from Asia is also expected to happen soon to bring an end to the Asia Cup fiasco.