Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi has reportedly expressed his readiness to hand over the Asia Cup 2025 Trophy and winner’s medals to the Indian team, but has set a condition.The
Indian team defeated Pakistan by 5 wickets in the final of the Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai on Sunday, September 28. Kuldeep Yadav took 4/30 to restrict Pakistan to 146 runs despite Sahibzada Farhan’s half-century. Then, despite India being reduced to 20/3, Tilak Varma starred with the bat, scoring 69* and shepherding Men in Blue to their 9th Asia Cup title.
However, there was a lot of drama after India won the Asia Cup as they refused to receive their winners’ medals and the Trophy from ACC chair Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the interior minister of the Pakistan government.
India proposed to take the trophy from Emirates Cricket Board chairman Khalid Al Zarooni and Bangladesh Cricket Board president Aminul Islam. But Naqvi, maybe to safeguard his image at home, stayed firm, claiming that only he would hand up the award.
What came next was even more unusual: not only did Naqvi walk off the platform and out of the stadium, but ACC officials followed him with the award. It's currently apparently housed in the ACC headquarters, not far from the stadium, even as the Indians unusually celebrated their victory, lifting an imaginary trophy and posting images with coffee 'cups' or trophy emojis.
Now, Cricbuzz has reported that Naqvi has laid down one condition to hand over the winner’s medals and Asia Cup trophy to the Indian team. The condition is that he wants a ‘formal function’ to be arranged for the same. However, the report also stated that it’s unlikely that such a function would be arranged.
The BCCI has promised to raise the issue at the International Cricket Council meeting in November. However, according to the aforementioned report, the BCCI will also discuss it at an ACC meeting in Dubai on Tuesday, September 30, which is scheduled to begin at 3:30 pm IST.
(Cricbuzz report)
