ACC Chairperson and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is facing a strong backlash over the Asia Cup trophy fiasco, refused to congratulate India for winning the Asia Cup at Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Dubai, BCCI sources said.
A source said that a BCCI representative forced Naqvi to wish India during the meeting, but he congratulated Nepal and Mongolia instead -- Nepal recently won the T20I series against West Indies, their first series win against any Test-playing nation. Mongolia was inducted into the ACC this year along with Uzbekistan and the Philippines.
Unbeaten through the tournament, India scored an emphatic victory against Pakistan in the Asia Cup final on Sunday.
The Men in Blue refused to take the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from Naqvi, who is also Pakistan Interior Minister.
Kuldeep Yadav, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma received their individual awards from other dignitaries on stage, while Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha accepted the runners-up cheque from Naqvi. The Indian players did not acknowledge him.
The ACC chairman did not applaud the Indian players who came up to receive their personal accolades.
Speaking to ANI from Mumbai, Devajit Saikia said that Team India decided not to take the trophy from Naqvi.
He also condemned Naqvi's act of taking away the trophy and medals with him and said that during the International Cricket Council (ICC) Conference in November, a "serious and strong" protest would be launched against Naqvi.
"We have decided not to take the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main leaders of Pakistan. So we decided not to take it from him. But that does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him, along with the medals. So it is very unfortunate and unsportsmanlike, and we hope that the trophy and the medals will be returned to India as soon as possible. There is an ICC conference in November in Dubai. In the next conference, we are going to launch a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson," he said.
"India is fighting a war with a country, and a leader belonging to that country was supposed to hand over the trophy to us...We cannot accept a trophy from a person who represents a country that is waging a war against our country. So we have refused to take that trophy, but that does not mean that the gentleman will take the trophy and the medals, which are to be given to our country, to his own hotel room. That is totally unexpected, and we hope that his good sense will prevail. We are going to lodge a very strong protest against the behaviour of the gentleman in today's prize distribution ceremony," he added.
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