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Asia Cup 2025

Asia Cup trophy not awarded to champions India after they refuse to accept it from ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi

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Asia Cup trophy not awarded to champions Indiaafter they refuse to accept it from ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi.

Asia Cup champions Indian team on Sunday (September 28, 2025) refused to accept the winners’ trophy from ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also happens to be Pakistan’s Interior Minister and chairman of the country’s cricket board.

The post-match presentation descended into confusion and delay, with Indian players remaining at a distance from the stage while Naqvi waited to present the trophy.

Despite the presence of Emirates Cricket Board vice-chairman Khalid Al Zarooni, an acceptable alternative for the Indian side, the ACC chief insisted on personally handing over the award.

After nearly an hour of impasse and growing tension, the trophy was quietly taken backstage, never reaching the Indian team in front of the crowd. 

Only after their departure did the Indian team return to the dais. Confetti was released, the victory song rang out, and the players posed for photographs, celebrating with fans. 

Yet the trophy remained conspicuously absent. Having marked their triumph in their own way, India left the stadium without the silverware.

The standoff appeared to be the culmination of simmering tensions throughout the tournament. Indian players had earlier avoided pre-match handshakes, photo ops with Pakistani counterparts, and declined any formal engagement with Naqvi.

Fans in the stands, predominantly Indian supporters, made their disapproval loud and clear, booing Naqvi and chanting patriotic slogans. Meanwhile, the Pakistan team remained in the dressing room for nearly an hour after the match, leaving their cricket board chairman visibly isolated on stage.

Sources indicate India had informed the ACC ahead of time that they would not accept the trophy if presented by Naqvi, particularly in light of recent controversies, including his cryptic social media posts.

Naqvi had posted cryptic videos of Cristiano Ronaldo’s plane crash gesture celebrations which is a direct reference to the Pakistani claims that six Indian jets were downed during ‘Operation Sindoor’.

Naqvi is also behind demanding that ICC charge Suryakumar with a Level 4 offence for standing by the Indian Army and showing solidarity with victims of Pahalgam terror attack.

Asia Cup 2025

BCCI gets SL, Afghan support on Asia Cup trophy fiasco but Naqvi refuses to budge

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The deadlock over the Asia Cup trophy, which is yet to reach champions India, continues to be unresolved as the Asian Cricket Council’s Pakistani head Mohsin Naqvi has refused to part with it despite a fresh missive from the BCCI, backed by boards of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

A top ACC source told PTI that Naqvi has insisted that a BCCI representative collect the trophy from him at the body’s headquarters in Dubai but the Indian board has rejected that stance. The BCCI has reiterated that it will raise this matter in an ICC meeting next month.

“The BCCI secretary (Devajit Saikia), BCCI’s ACC representative Rajeev Shukla and representatives of other member boards including Sri Lanka Cricket and Afghanistan had written to the ACC president last week over handing the trophy to India,” the ACC source said.

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Asia Cup 2025

Atherton demands end to “neatly arranged” Indo-Pak clashes in ICC events after Asia Cup controversies

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Alleging that draws have been “neatly arranged” to ensure India-Pakistan clashes in ICC tournaments for “economic needs”, former England captain Michael Atherton has called for a complete halt to cricket between the two bitter rivals as sport has become a “proxy for broader tensions and propaganda”.

In a scathing column for  The Times, Atherton cited the recent “antics” at the Asia Cup where the Indian team refused to shake hands with Pakistani players and the Asian Cricket Council’s Pakistani head Mohsin Naqvi walked away with the winner’s trophy after the Indians refused to accept it from him.

“India and Pakistan have played each other in the group stage of every ICC event since 2013, which includes three 50-over World Cups, five T20 World Cups and three Champions Trophy,” Atherton said.

“That is regardless of whether the initial stage has been a single round robin – part of the motivation for which is the inevitability of an India versus Pakistan fixture – or multi-group, when the draws have been neatly arranged to ensure the fixture goes ahead,” he added.

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Asia Cup 2025

Kuldeep says bowling in Duleep Trophy helped him find his rhythm back

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India veteran spinner Kuldeep Yadav revealed that bowling in the Duleep Trophy before the Asia Cup 2025 helped him to get his rhythm back in the mega event. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 summit clash at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. 

Notably, the 30-year-old veteran spinner was part of India’s squad for the five-Test match series of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, but he was unable to feature in the playing XI as the management decided to feature with more batting options. 

Kuldeep ended his Asia Cup 2025 campaign as the highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps in nine outings of the tournament. His best figures of the tournament were 4/7 against the UAE in Dubai. After India’s five-wicket win against Pakistan in the title decider, the Uttar Pradesh-born spinner told Rinku Singh in a candid chat that skipper Suryakumar Yadav backed him a lot. 

“I don’t have fixed goals and I have only one motivation to perform well for the team whenever I get a chance. When you are out of cricketing action, you need rhythm. That was important to me, and I played the Duleep Trophy where I bowled a lot, so when I came in Dubai for the Asia Cup, I got my rhythm. My role was to bowl in the middle over and control the run flow. The captain backed me a lot in this, thanks to the captain” Kuldeep Yadav told Rinku Singh on a video shared by BCCI. 

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