Adjacent to the press conference hall at the Dubai International Stadium is the events office, where dignitaries wait before stepping onto the ground to take part in the presentation ceremony after the final of a major tournament.
On Sunday night, after India beat Sri Lanka convincingly in the final of the Women’s T20 Asia Cup to win a record-extending eighth title, a host of officials were again waiting at the events office.
But even after the staff had set up the presentation area on the ground, the officials remained in the events office.
A few of them were seen talking, but a sense of tension was palpable on their faces.
At the centre of the group was Mohsin Naqvi, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman who is also the Asian Cricket Council chief.
With each passing minute, the fear of a repeat of the 2025 Men’s Asia Cup trophy controversy loomed large.
Several minutes had passed before Rajiv Shukla, the vice-president of the Indian cricket board, stepped out of the events office and slowly walked towards the middle, raising hopes that he would present the trophy to the winners and the runners-up, avoiding a repeat of last year’s fiasco when the Indian men’s team refused to collect the award from Naqvi after beating Pakistan in the final at the same ground.
But Shukla only walked up to the Indian players, who were standing in a huddle by the boundary rope.
Amid the confusion, Naqvi, flanked by other officials, finally came out of the events office and made his way to the presentation area.
There was no doubt anymore about who was going to give away the trophies.
But the Indian women’s team, just like last year’s men’s squad, had already made up their minds not to accept the trophy from Naqvi, who is also the Interior Minister of Pakistan.
Minutes after Naqvi got onto the stage, the Indian players walked back to the dressing room.
With diplomatic relations between the two countries at an all-time low after the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours almost came to the brink of an all-out war in May 2025, the repercussions of the military conflict were felt at a sporting event once again.
The Sri Lankan team did receive their medals, earning a standing ovation from the fans.
But Naqvi was greeted with boos as he walked back to the events office after presenting the medals to the Sri Lankan players.
Chamari Athapaththu, the Sri Lankan skipper, found herself in an awkward position when asked about the trophy fiasco.
“Everyone is independent in their decisions, so I control what I can control. We take our medals because it’s a ceremony, and we want to do that,” Athapaththu said.
“So we take our medals. But I don’t know about the others. Sorry, I cannot answer these questions. I will control what I can control.”
While several Pakistani media houses, including The Daily Jang, slammed the Indian team for bringing politics into sport once again, India’s head coach Amol Muzumdar stated that the players were simply following the instructions of the country’s cricket board.
“That stand has been taken by BCCI and we stand by it (not accepting trophy from Naqvi). For us, this tournament is over, we are the champions,” Muzumdar said at the post-match press conference.
“That’s good enough. It was on the big board that India are the champions of Asia Cup 2026. This tournament is officially over for us. We are happy that we are the champions and we look forward to the Asian Games.”
Meanwhile, Devajit Saikia, BCCI secretary, claimed the Indian cricket board had informed Asian Cricket Council officials before the final about their decision not to take the trophy from Naqvi if the team won the tournament.
The Indian team, according to Saikia, was ready to accept the trophy from any other official, citing past examples of Asia Cups where representatives of the winning team’s cricket board had handed over the awards.
“We made a request to all the concerned persons that, keeping the tradition of Asia Cup, when in earlier times when Bangladesh won, when Sri Lanka won, our former ACC chairperson, who is the ICC chair now, Jay Shah, there was a norm that the winning team will get the trophy from their country’s board’s head,” Saikia told India Today.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Sri Lanka’s men’s and women’s teams received the trophies from then Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Shammi Silva after winning the 2022 and 2024 Asia Cup titles respectively.
“If you look at Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in earlier occasions, and for BCCI, once winning, the head of the country’s board, either the secretary or the president, was to hand over the trophy,” Saikia said.
“This norm has been changed drastically in the last year, when India won the men’s Asia Cup trophy. I do not want to enter this controversy, but the only thing is that the tradition is to be maintained.”
Both parties are unlikely to tire of arguing over who the moral victor is in this episode, but the paying public at the stadium doesn’t deserve to witness a final being ruined by the effects of diplomatic tensions between two countries.
Source: Khaleej Times