In yet another fiery India–Pakistan clash at the Asia Cup, Suryakumar’s side maintained their stand by refusing the customary handshake with their rivals and also chose not to receive the trophy from ACC president Mohsin Naqvi, who doubles as PCB chief and a minister in Pakistan. He is known for his vocal anti-India stand, and the Men in Blue took a firm stand against Pakistan in the tournament.

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia strongly criticised ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi’s conduct during the Asia Cup trophy ceremony, explaining why India refused to accept the trophy and vowing a formal protest over the incident.

“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,” Saikia told ANI.

“BCCI to launch a very serious protest against ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi”

Saikia didn’t hold back and slammed the ACC chief’s “unsportsmanlike” act of walking away with the Asia Cup trophy and medals, vowing India will lodge a serious protest at the upcoming ICC conference in Dubai.

“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 added.

Meanwhile, Tilak Varma was the hero of India’s hard-fought win, where they chased down the 147-run target in Dubai. Varma smashed an unbeaten 69 off 53 as he stabilised the chase when things were not going well for India, with wickets kept tumbling from the other end. It was Rinku Singh who hit the winning run with a boundary to seal the deal for India.