NEW DELHI, Oct 21: India is once again learnt to have rejected the offer of the Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board and interior minister in the Shehbaz Sharif government, to take the Asia Cup Trophy from him in Dubai.
The ball may now be in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) court to decide how and when India would get the trophy it earned by defeating Pakistan in the finals of the Asia Cup last month.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) wrote a formal letter to the ACC president requesting Mr Naqvi to requesting him to arrange for handing over the trophy to India. However, his response showed that there was no change in his earlier stand that only he would hand over the cup to the winning team. The ACC on Tuesday reportedly replied to the BCCI’s letter proposing that the ACC would once again host a trophy presentation ceremony in Dubai in the first week of November.
According to a report in the Pakistani media, insiders revealed that ACC was willing to hand over the Asia Cup trophy to India in a ceremony that they are willing to stage next month. “If you want the trophy, we can hold a ceremony where you can receive it,” the ACC reportedly told the BCCI.
The Asia Cup trophy has remained at the ACC headquarters after Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav refused to accept it from Naqvi. The refusal led to Naqvi walking away from the ground with the trophy in an unprecedented move. The Indian team’s decision came amid on-field tension during the first two Asia Cup 2025 matches, after Suryakumar and his teammates declined to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts as a mark of respect for the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.
A separate report also revealed that BCCI, which has found support from fellow ACC members Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, has rejected ACC’s offer to collect the trophy from the body’s headquarters in Dubai. The Indian board is expected to bring up the issue in the ICC meeting next month.
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“The BCCI secretary, 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.
“But his response was that someone from BCCI should come to Dubai and take the trophy from him. So that matter has still not moved. BCCI has made its stance clear that it won’t be receiving the trophy from him. So the matter will most likely be decided in the ICC meeting,” he added.
The ICC is currently headed by former BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
(Manas Dasgupta)