On Sunday, 28th of September after India won the Asia cup final,a bizarrecontroversy took place between the players and Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi who is a Pakistani minister as well. Team India was denied the winner’s trophy and medals at presentation ceremony. The incident happened after Indian cricket team captain Suryakumar Yadav refused to accept the trophy from a Pakistan’s interior minister. Many videos went viral on social media platforms showing Indian team playersenjoyingseparate from the ceremony event, as team did not want to receive trophy from the hands of Mohsin Naqvi.Afterwards, Indian team was seen celebrating without the trophy and many players even posted photos with fake trophy on social media handles. “ I think this is the one thing which I have never seen since I started playing cricket, started following cricket, that a champion is denied a hard-earned trophy” were the words from Indian team captain Suryakumar Yadav.
India won the tournament, beating Pakistan by 5 wickets. Both the teams clashed again in final after facing each other twice in group stage matches.India won all three matches as well as went on undefeated in the whole tournament. Showing the complete dominance, team Indianot just won the trophy butalso the most runs scored and most wickets taken in the tournament were by Indian players, Abhishek Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav respectively.
What is the major reasons causing controversy
1. Initially prior to India’s first match against Pakistan on 14th September, there were demandsfrom political leaders, parties and families of terror attack victims to boycott the match. The reason behind boycott was the Pahalgam terror attack held in April, killing 26 people. After the attack Indo-Pakistanrelations deteriorated even further, leading totensions between both the nations.Opposition parties and leaders criticized the government for allowing India to play against Pakistan and not standing firm on their stand against terrorism.However, former sports minister Anurag Thakurexplained “ If Indian team doesn’t play, it will be automatically eliminated from the tournament”. He also stated that being a multinational tournament, participation was mandatory and assured that India won’t be playing any bilateral cricket with Pakistan. Government’s new sports policy released in August also allowed matches in international or multinational tournament but ruled out any bilateral sporting event meaning India won’t host or tour Pakistan.
2. After every game in all three matches between India and Pakistan, Indian players refused to shake hands with Pakistan players. Pakistan had threatened to quit the tournament because of the gesture but ultimately ended up playing all the matches.
3.Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf caught attention during 2nd match against India for top four on 21stSeptember when he made a ‘6-0’ gesture and mimicked a fighter jet towards the crowd. The gesture referred to the claim made by Pakistan to have shot down six Indian aircrafts during Operation Sandor. The gesture took internet by storm and received a lot of criticism.
4. After winning the final, when captain Surya Kumar Yadav refused to take trophy from Mohsin Naqvi, a federal minister of Pakistan, team India was not given medals and trophy. The incident caused outrage among Indian citizens leading to criticism on media and internet. Further Naqvi was accused of taking trophy along.
What was approach of BCCI towards the incident
BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket India) strongly condemned the act of not handing over Asia Cup trophy to the winner team and warned to file the complaint to ICC (International Cricket Council).Reports says that on Tuesday in the meeting of ACC AGM (Annual General Meeting),BCCI’sVice-president Rajeev Shukla and Ashish Shelarattending the meeting virtually condemned Mohsin Naqviand asked him to return the trophy and medals. In return when Naqvi said that Suryakumar Yadav could collect them from his office in Dubai, BCCI showed clear stance that the Indian team would not take the trophy from Naqvi.
BCCI has also filed a complaint to ICC against Pakistan cricketers Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan for their provocative gestures on field during the match for top four.
How former cricket celebrities and citizens have reacted
While Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev expressed his disappointment stating he wasn’t happy to see politics getting mixed with sports. He said that the primary focus should have been on sports and that politics and sports should be kept separate, former Indian keeper-batsman Syed Kirman also came up with similar statement accusing politics ruining the sportsmanship.
At the same time former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi has slammed Mohsin Naqvi of having no relevant cricket knowledge and to step down from chairmanship of Pakistan Cricket Board. Meanwhile Indian citizens supported the decision of refusal referring it to be aligned with national dignity, they have also accused ACC chairman of running away with the trophy and quoting him as a Trophy-thief.
