Politics on Monday dominated conversations after thrilling game between arch rivals India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup on Sunday.
Suryakumar Yadav and his men held their nerves to win the nail-biting final by five wickets to complete a ninth title-winning campaign, remaining unbeaten through the past fortnight.
But that wasn’t the accomplishment which dictated the discourse. The point of discussion, however, was the politics of it all as Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi, also the Pakistan Cricket Board boss and the Interior Minister of his country, walked away with the winner’s trophy after the Indians refused to accept it from him.
The reason. His well-documented anti-India comments and the heightening political tensions between the two countries after 26 Indians were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists in Pahalgam earlier this year.
India retaliated with Operation Sindoor. Naqvi was among those who mocked the Indian team for following a ‘No Handshake Policy’ towards them during the entire tournament.
“I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing and following cricket that a champion team is denied a trophy. I mean that too a hard-earned one. It’s not like it happened easily. It was a hard earned tournament win,” said Suryakumar, reflecting on how it felt being denied the biggest prize after winning seven consecutive games at the continental showpiece.
Suryakumar couldn’t be faulted for being at a loss of words. He had been at the centre of about 90 minutes of pure drama at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
His wife Devisha, head coach Gautam Gambhir’s wife and daughters were all on the ground after the triumph to celebrate with the trophy.
The team, however, was unwilling to head to the dais to collect it from Naqvi, who was waiting to exercise his right to hand over the winner’s trophy as ACC chair. He waited and so did the Indians, about 25 yards from him.
It is learnt that the BCCI had informed their ACC points-person that the team won’t take the award from Naqvi, who had posted cryptic videos of Cristiano Ronaldo’s plane crash goal celebration alluding to the Pakistani claims that six Indian jets were downed during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
“No one told us to do this,” said Suryakumar, insisting later that the call to boycott Naqvi was taken at the ground. As Naqvi got down from the podium due to India’s refusal and strode towards the exit gate, the ACC event staff, to everyone’s surprise, followed him with the trophy leaving the Indian camp flummoxed. It is learnt that the prized silverware is at the ACC headquarters here.
Saikia said that the Indian Board would be lodging a “very strong protest” against Naqvi during the upcoming ICC meeting in November.