'No apology, collect trophy from me', Mohsin Naqvi on Asia Cup trophy row

Dubai: Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday said the Indian team is “welcome” to collect the Asia Cup trophy from him at the continental body’s head office here as controversy around the champions being denied the top prize continued to rage.

In a post on X, Naqvi rejected reports claiming that he, at the ACC AGM on Tuesday, apologised to BCCI officials for his actions at the presentation ceremony on Sunday when he walked away with the trophy after the Indians refused to accept it from him.

Naqvi is also the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and interior minister of his country with a pronounced anti-India political position.

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“As ACC President, I was ready to hand over the trophy that very day and I am still ready now. If they truly want it, they are welcome to come to the ACC office and collect it from me,” he wrote.

“Let me make it absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong and I have never apologised to the BCCI nor will I ever do so,” he added.

Ashish Shelar and Rajeev Shukla had represented the BCCI in the ACC AGM where they raised a strong objection over the trophy not being duly handed over to the Suryakumar Yadav-led side which beat Pakistan in the final.

Naqvi had told the BCCI officials on Tuesday that he was ready to give the trophy to the Indian team. However, no decision on that issue was taken in the AGM, upsetting the BCCI top brass further.

The BCCI will take the matter to the ICC which will have its meeting in November.

The two teams played each other thrice in the tournament with India winning each time, including the final. India maintained a ‘no handshake policy’ with Pakistan players during the event, infuriating the PCB.

The hostilities between the two neighbours are at an all-time high after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Indian tourists were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

India had subsequently launched military action under ‘Operation Sindoor’ to dismantle terror infrastructure across the border.

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