India’s women’s cricket team won a record-extending eighth Women’s Asia Cup title in Dubai in September, defeating Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the final, but declined to take part in the post-match trophy presentation because Asian Cricket Council president Mohsin Naqvi, who also serves as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, was set to hand over the trophy. The gesture repeated a near-identical snub by India’s men’s team a year earlier, reigniting a diplomatic fault line that continues to run through South Asian cricket’s biggest events.
How the Snub Unfolded
Harmanpreet Kaur’s side secured the title with a commanding performance in the final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, but the team did not participate in the trophy ceremony afterward, with India’s women’s coach Amol Mazumdar later confirming that the squad stood by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision not to receive the trophy from Naqvi. Fans in attendance reportedly chanted “Trophy chor,” a phrase roughly translating to “trophy thief,” directed at Naqvi during the presentation, underscoring how charged the atmosphere around the ceremony had become.
The Precedent Set a Year Earlier
The snub directly mirrors an incident from the previous year’s Men’s T20 Asia Cup final, also held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, when Suryakumar Yadav’s India team defeated Pakistan but similarly refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi, resulting in the trophy being left at the Asian Cricket Council’s Dubai office rather than formally presented. That the women’s team chose to repeat the same gesture suggests a coordinated institutional stance from the BCCI rather than an isolated decision by either team, reflecting how closely aligned India’s cricket board’s political posture has become across both the men’s and women’s programs.
The Naqvi Factor Driving the Tension
Naqvi’s dual role as both Asian Cricket Council president and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman sits at the center of the controversy, since his position places a senior Pakistani government-aligned cricket official in the position of presenting trophies to a victorious Indian team, at a moment when broader India-Pakistan political relations remain strained. Pre-match reporting had suggested Naqvi might skip the Women’s Asia Cup ceremony entirely, with ACC vice-president Khalid Zarooni expected to present the trophy instead, but Naqvi ultimately did attend, setting up the same confrontation that played out a year earlier.
The Case That Sport Should Stay Separate From Politics
Critics of India’s repeated trophy snub, including some neutral cricket commentators, argue that athletes and sporting ceremonies should remain insulated from broader geopolitical tensions, and that repeatedly declining official recognition undermines the spirit of continental cricket competitions designed to bring South Asian nations together rather than serve as another venue for political signaling. This view holds that regardless of the underlying political grievances, a trophy presentation ceremony is not the appropriate forum for expressing them.
The Case for India’s Position
Supporters of the BCCI’s stance argue that cricket boards have never been fully separable from national political contexts, particularly in the India-Pakistan relationship, and that declining to accept a trophy from an official seen as representing a government the BCCI has political objections to is a legitimate, nonviolent form of protest that causes no disruption to the match itself or to the competitive integrity of the tournament. They note that the Indian team still accepted their medals and prize money, limiting the gesture specifically to the ceremonial trophy handover rather than a broader boycott.
What’s Next
With the pattern now repeated across both the men’s and women’s Asia Cup finals in consecutive years, cricket administrators face mounting pressure to resolve the ceremonial standoff before it recurs at future tournaments, potentially by adjusting who presents trophies at India-involved finals or by addressing the underlying tension through diplomatic channels beyond cricket’s governing bodies. Until such a resolution emerges, any future Asia Cup final involving India appears likely to carry the same risk of becoming a ceremonial standoff rather than a straightforward celebration of the winning team.
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