Mohsin Naqvi Reportedly Still Not Ready to Hand Over Asia Cup Trophy to India, Admits He Looked Like ‘Cartoon’ on Presentation Podium

ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi stands his ground in the ACC meeting as well.

Mohsin Naqvi Reportedly Still Not Ready to Hand Over Asia Cup Trophy to India, Admits He Looked Like ‘Cartoon’ on Presentation Podium

In circle- Mohsin Naqvi; In background- Asia Cup Presentation Ceremony (Image via NDTV Sports/Jagran)

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The Asia Cup 2025 final was a closely fought game between India and Pakistan. With the occasion being a dream final for most cricket lovers, the cherry on top was to see it go to the last over. However, the attention soon shifted from cricket, and the post-match presentation became the talking point.

India refused to collect the winner’s trophy from Mohsin Naqvi, who is the chairman of the Asia Cricket Council as well as an interior minister in Pakistan. Naqvi stood his ground, stating that he will only present the trophy to the winning captain and thus stormed back into the stands with the trophy.

The Indian team was then seen celebrating with an imaginary trophy. As per reports, the Asia Cup trophy is with Naqvi at the Dubai hotel. Two days later, there was an online ACC meeting held to discuss the matter.

The meeting was a heated one, with Naqvi first starting by congratulating Mongolia for getting membership in the ACC. He further congratulated Nepal on beating the West Indies. Indian representative Ashish Shelar interrupted Naqvi and asked why he wasn’t congratulating India for its win in the Asia Cup.

Naqvi then greeted and congratulated the Indian team as well. Another Indian representative, Rajiv Shukla, demanded that the trophy should be handed over to the Indian team. Naqvi in reply vented his anger at the presentation ceremony.

I was standing for an hour on the podium looking like a cartoon. However, the Indian team didn’t budge and showed immense disrespect to me.

Mohsin Naqvi said in the ACC Meeting as per Geo News’ Faizan Lakhani

Naqvi with that statement and the use of the word “cartoon” in many ways justified his decision to send the trophy back and keep India trophyless. Shukla once again insisted that he would want the team would want the trophy.

If the Indian team wants the trophy, the captain can come to the ACC office and collect it from me.

Mohsin Naqvi added

Naqvi with his reply once again stayed adamant about being the only one to give the trophy and gave no signs of bending to any Indian appeal. Shukla also reportedly told Naqvi that the trophy wasn’t his personal property.

To this Naqvi said that “the board will discuss this issue in the next meeting.” The decision is very much in the air with many not knowing how the entire situation will pan out. The BCCI has threatened that it will raise the matter with the ICC. However, as of now, Naqvi has shown no signs of a compromise.

5 Asian Cricket Council Test nations to decide the final Trophy Fate

With no real conclusion in the recently concluded meeting, Mohsin Naqvi has now decided that the boards of the five Test playing nations in Asia will decide the final fate of the trophy fiasco. These include the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB).

Asian Cricket Council meeting to be held between the 5 Test playing Asian teams soon.
Still from Asian Cricket Council’s annual general meeting (Image via Asian Cricket Council)

These boards are expected to meet each other offline and finally crack the entire trophy dilemma. Naqvi would like the matter to be resolved within Asian Cricket before the BCCI acts on its threat of taking the matter to the ICC.

This chaos that has engulfed Asian cricket also had its side effects. The important matters of the next vice president and the finalization of the schedule of other ACC events like emerging players and U-19 matches, which were scheduled to take place in the meeting, eventually got overlooked amidst the one big Asia Cup issue.

These matters will now be taken up at a different meeting. Never have tensions escalated so high between the two teams, and this seems to be the beginning of a new era. With the Indian women scheduled to play the Pakistani women in a World Cup match coming Sunday, it will be interesting to see how the women respond to the entire situation created around them.

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