Following their dominating 72-run victory over Sri Lanka in the Women's Asia Cup final in Dubai on Sunday (September 13), the Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian side declined to accept the championship trophy and medallions from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Mohsin Naqvi, who is also Pakistan's Interior Minister and PCB chief.
This move mirrors the stance taken by the Indian men’s cricket team during the 2025 Men's Asia Cup, where they similarly refused to collect the trophy from Naqvi due to heightened tensions following the Pahalgam terror attack and retaliatory Operation Sindoor.
The BCCI had suggested that ACC Vice-President Khalid Al Zarooni or another board representative hand over the trophy. However, Naqvi insisted on presenting it himself, which led to the Indian team skipping the podium ceremony entirely.
The Women's Asia Cup trophy has been taken to the ACC office in Dubai, where it remains locked away alongside the Men's Asia Cup trophy from the last year.
Reacting to the whole fiasco, former cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra took a brutal dig at Mohsin Naqvi while also opining that India should not play the Asia Cup if these things happen repeatedly.
"Indian women have become Asia Cup champions for the eighth time. But once again, they haven't received the trophy. The men's team didn't get the trophy either. You know why, right? Mohsin Naqvi came along. Whenever he comes, he runs away with the trophy. The Indian team doesn't take the trophy from him. And we all know it," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
"We knew that India had won eight out of 10 tournaments. So we already knew that India was going to win this tournament. Then how did we end up here? I still can't understand why we can't figure out something. If this is going to happen again and again, why do we even play the Asia Cup?" he added.
Earlier, BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla confirmed that the Indian women's cricket team's refusal to accept the trophy from Naqvi was a "collective decision" of the board. He clarified that the ACC chairman did not protest or raise any objections to the decision at the venue.
“We discussed the matter among ourselves and decided that we would not accept it (trophy) from him. It was our collective decision. He (Naqvi) also did not raise any objection to it,” Shukla told reporters after arriving at the Indira Gandhi International Airport with the team.
“We informed our team accordingly, and he presented it to whoever he had to and then left,” Shukla added.
