‘Cannot accept trophy from a person who represents a country that is waging war against our country’: BCCI secretary

DUBAI: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia emphasized that they cannot “accept a trophy from a person” who represents a country that is “waging a war against our country” and said they are going to lodge a very “strong protest against the behaviour of the “gentleman” in today’s prize distribution ceremony, while referring to ACC chairperson Mohsin Naqvi.

During the post-match presentation, Pakistan collected their runners-up medals, and so did Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma, the ‘Player of the Match’ and ‘Player of the Tournament’ award winners, respectively.

However, after post-match interviews of Tilak, Abhishek and Pakistan skipper Salman Agha, former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull, the presenter informed that India will not be collecting their medals or trophy during the ceremony, and the ceremony concluded.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed by the Asian Cricket Council that the Indian cricket team will not be collecting their awards tonight. So that does conclude the post-match presentation,” informed Simon as heard on the live TV broadcasting.

However, skipper Suryakumar Yadav and whole Team India did celebrate their triumph without any trophies and medals. Posing for the cameras, Suryakumar replicated ex-T20I skipper Rohit Sharma’s slow-walk T20 World Cup 2024 winning celebration with the rest of the team, with fireworks going off in the background.

Speaking to ANI from Mumbai, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia said that Team India decided not to take the trophy from their Chairperson of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Mohsin Naqvi, who also happens to be the Interior Minister in the Pakistan government and the chairperson of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

#WATCH | Mumbai | BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia says, “We have decided not to take the #AsiaCup2025 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… pic.twitter.com/ZdFy57obrM

— ANI (@ANI) September 28, 2025

He also condemned his 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.

He also called for “good sense to prevail” and emphasised that a leader belonging to that country was supposed to hand over the trophy to us, referring to Mohsin Naqvi.

“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.

Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to field first. An 84-run stand between Sahidzada Farhan (57 in 38 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Fakhar Zaman (46 in 35 balls, with two fours and two sixes) gave Pakistan the headstart they needed. However, thanks to the magic of spinners Kuldeep Yadav (4/30) and Varun Chakravarthy (2/30) in the middle overs, Pakistan faced a collapse from 113/1 in 12.4 overs to 146 all out in 19.1 overs, with Jasprit Bumrah (2/25) also getting the final two wickets.

During the run-chase, India sank to 20/3 due to an initial burst from Faheem Ashraf (3/29). However, Tilak Varma (69* in 53 balls, with three fours and four sixes), stitched a 57-run stand with Sanju Samson (24 in 21 balls, with two fours and a six) to bring India back into the game.

Shivam Dube (33 in 22 balls, with two fours and two sixes) delivered some carnage with Tilak, solidifying India’s hold on the game despite some occasional brilliance from Pakistan. In the end, it was Rinku Singh, who was featuring in his first Asia Cup match, who got the chance to hit the winning runs on the first ball. (ANI)