Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president Mohsin Naqvi’s antics dominated the virtual meeting between the cricket boards of several Asian countries over the Asia Cup trophy row as the matter remained unresolved, with the BCCI writing to the ICC to provide a solution.
The resolution of the Asia Cup trophy row wasn’t reached on Tuesday, September 30, at the virtual ACC meet, as the BCCI has vowed to write to the ICC regarding Mohsin Naqvi, the Asian Cricket Council president’s antics after the winning Indian team refused to receive the trophy and medallions from him on Sunday in Dubai. What was supposed to be a resolution meeting ended up being confrontational, with the BCCI representative Ashish Shelar urging Naqvi to do the needful.
As per the BCCI sources, there were three main issues which needed to be addressed – first, the BCCI expressing its reservations regarding Naqvi’s conduct on the fateful night; second, Naqvi’s speech at the meeting even had a mention of Mongolia and Nepal but the PCB chairman and the ACC president didn’t congratulate India for their Asia Cup and third, both Rajeev Shukla and Ashish Shelar, the representatives for the BCCI, asking Naqvi in straight terms to leave the trophy at the ACC office for India to collect from there.
Naqvi then agreed to hand over the trophy to India, but the BCCI was very clear in its stance of getting the trophy from the ACC office and not from his hands. The ambiguity in Naqvi’s responses didn’t help anyone, as Shelar threatened to escalate the matter to the ICC. After a break, the BCCI remained firm on its stance of taking the trophy from the ACC office and Naqvi agreed to discuss it further before the meeting came to a close.
The ball is now in the five Test-playing nations, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan’s court, with the decision being left to them to take a final call as to whether India will eventually get the deserved trophy or not.
The to-and-fro between the two nations began from the group stage encounter when India refused to shake hands with Pakistan in the first game out of the three on September 14. The indifference between the players of the two teams grew in the second, with a lot being said from both sides. It went to another level in the final when probably for the first time, there were two broadcasters at the toss to speak to the captains of their respective countries.
After winning the thrilling final, India maintained its position of not receiving the trophy from Naqvi and the latter was unwavering too in handing out the winner’s trophy, being the ACC president. Later, India celebrated with an imaginary trophy and captain Suryakumar Yadav mentioned that the 14 other guys in the dressing room were his trophy.
