DUBAI (Reuters) -India beat Pakistan to defend their Asia Cup title but refused to accept the trophy from Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi in a bizarre end to a politically-charged tournament on Sunday.
Emotions ran high around the match between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who engaged in a brief military conflict in May, that nearly escalated into full-scale war.
The teams clashed three times in the eight-team tournament in the United Arab Emirates with India prevailing on all three occasions.
After India beat Pakistan by five wickets in Sunday’s final at the Dubai International Stadium, speculations swirled as the presentation ceremony got delayed by more than an hour and was subsequently cut short just before the winner’s trophy was to be handed out.
“I have been informed by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) that the Indian cricket team will not be collecting their awards tonight,” Simon Doull, who conducted the post-match presentation, said.
Indian cricket board (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed their players had refused to accept the winner’s trophy from ACC President Naqvi, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“We have decided not to take the trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main leaders of Pakistan,” Saikia told news agency ANI.
The BCCI would lodge a protest against Naqvi in the next meeting of the governing International Cricket Council (ICC), Saikia added.
India players Tilak Varma (player-of-the-match), Abhishek Sharma (player-of-the-tournament) and Kuldeep Yadav (MVP), however, turned up to accept their individual awards although they did not acknowledge Naqvi and the Pakistan official was also the only person on stage who did not applaud the Indian trio.
REFUSED TO SHAKE HANDS
Indian players have refused to shake hands with their Pakistan counterparts either at the toss or after the match throughout the tournament.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav referred to the May clashes and dedicated his team’s victory against Pakistan in the September 14 to the armed forces back home.
India president Droupadi Murmu took to X on Sunday to congratulate the cricket team for winning the Asia Cup.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the name given to India’s series of strikes on sites in Pakistan in his message on the same platform.
“#OperationSindoor on the games field. Outcome is the same – India wins! Congrats to our cricketers,” Modi wrote.
Since their independence in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Kashmir region and there have been several other more limited flare-ups.
Even before the May clashes, bilateral cricket was suspended between the teams, who play each other only in multi-team events and in neutral venues.
Sunday’s prize distribution controversy overshadowed the actual match where Varma anchored India’s nervy chase with an unbeaten 69 in reply to Pakistan’s 146 all out.
Put into bat, Pakistan could not capitalise on an 84-run opening stand between Sahibzada Farhan (57) and Fakhar Zaman (46) and were bundled out for 146 with five deliveries still left in their innings.
Pakistan lost their last nine wickets for 33 runs in a spectacular meltdown with India’s left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (4-30) being the wrecker-in-chief.
India slumped to 20-3 in reply before Varma combined with Sanju Samson (24) and Shivam Dube (33) to guide India to victory.
Pakistan players received their runner-up medals in the presentation ceremony held largely in front of empty stands.
“Pretty amazing,” India vice-captain Shubman Gill summed up their feeling in his interaction with the official broadcasters.
“(Finishing) the whole tournament unbeaten – it’s pretty amazing to be in this position.”
Pakistan captain Salman Agha did not hide his disappointment after failing to beat world T20 champions India in three attempts in a single tournament.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow right now,” Agha said blaming their batters for letting down the team in the tournament.
“In bowling, we gave everything. If we could have finished well (with the bat), it would have been a different story.
“We could not rotate the strike properly and we lost too many wickets. That was the reason we could not score what we wanted.”
Asia Cup is the flagship tournament of the ACC.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
