Team India refused to accept the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday, 28 September. Naqvi stunned the cricket world by deciding to return the trophy to his hotel room. He attended the final match ceremony between India and Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. He even took the stage for the presentation after the Indians defeated Pakistan by five wickets. Still, he left the ceremony and the stadium when India reaffirmed their intention to have a "neutral" official present the trophy to them.
It has been two days since the Asia Cup 2025 final concluded, and there's no concrete update on when and how the trophy and winners' medals will be delivered to the Indian team, which has already returned home.
But according to a report in Cricbuzz, Naqvi, a prominent figure in Pakistani politics, sent a demand that the Indian team return the trophy and medals. According to the report, Naqvi told the organizers that, for Suryakumar Yadav and his team to receive their medals, a formal event had to be planned where he could present them with the trophy and medals. However, given India and Pakistan's political feud, it is extremely unlikely to ask that such an agreement would be reached.
Earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia slammed Naqvi for taking the trophy and medals to his hotel room.
"We hope that the trophy and the medals will be returned to India as soon as possible. This is definitely what we are going to do (protest). There is an ICC conference in the month of November or in the first week of November in Dubai. We are going to launch a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson," the BCCI official asserted.
"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," BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told ANI. He also confirmed that the BCCI has decided to report the matter to the ICC. "That does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him, along with the medals. It is very unfortunate, very unsporting.
The Asia Cup 2025 trophy dispute has now turned into a diplomatic hot spot, with India refusing to back down and the BCCI promising a forceful protest at the ICC.
