‘Trophy chor, trophy chor’ echoed around the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday as Mohsin Naqvi walked away from the presentation dais after India’s 72-run win over Sri Lanka in the Women’s Asia Cup final.
The chant was a callback to the controversy that followed the men’s Asia Cup final in 2025. And our whole situation, since the April 2025 Pahalgam incident, changed after that. “Our men’s team won the Asia Cup a year and a half ago.
The Women’s team has expressed solidarity with the decision taken by the men’s team last year,” Saikia told IANS. India had secured a record-extending eighth Women’s Asia Cup title, but Harmanpreet Kaur and her teammates did not collect the trophy from Naqvi, the Asian Cricket Council president and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman. Naqvi remained on the presentation stage and handed the runners-up cheque to Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu. The Indian team did not come forward to receive the trophy from him, and Naqvi had to leave the stadium without handing over the trophy. India had defeated Pakistan in the final in Dubai, but the post-match presentation was delayed by more than an hour. The Indian players were left waiting for their trophy and medals, while visuals showed the Asia Cup trophy being taken away from the presentation area. So, after that, there was pressure on us from our citizens that we shouldn’t keep any relations with our neighboring country and not play cricket with them. But our government has a policy that we must play against every country in multinational tournaments… “But that doesn’t mean we will follow every condition laid out for us. Our military conflict is still ongoing. One of the main leaders who is working against the interests of our country; we can’t receive the trophy from him. Naqvi had been seated in the Royal Box alongside BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla and Saikia during the match. The visuals of the officials speaking with Naqvi also drew attention after the presentation.