Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Asia Cricket Council (ACC) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday refuted claims by Indian media that he had apologised to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the trophy handover issue at Sunday’s Asia Cup final.
The closing ceremony of the men’s Asia Cup descended into farce on Sunday as the Indian cricket team refused to collect the winners’ trophy from the ACC chief, marking a historic low in cricketing relations between the two countries. Subsequently, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav complained his side were denied the trophy after winning the Asia Cup.
Later, Indian media alleged that Naqvi had himself refused to hand the trophy over to the Indian team.
Today, several Indian outlets, including IndiaToday, Financial Express and Hindustan Times, reported that Naqvi had now apologised to the BCCI, but that he still refused to hand them the trophy.
Responding to an India Today post about their report on social media platform X, Naqvi stated, “Indian media thrives on lies, not facts. Let me make it absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong and I have never apologised to the BCCI nor will I ever do so.”
He called the claims “fabricated nonsense” and “cheap propaganda”, saying it was aimed at misleading Indian people.
The PCB chairman slammed India for continuing to “drag politics into cricket, damaging the very spirit of the game”.
“As ACC chairman, I was ready to hand over the trophy that very day and I am still ready now,” he said. “If they truly want it, they are welcome to come to the ACC office and collect it from me.”
During the Asia Cup, Naqvi had previously expressed disappointment over the “lack of sportsmanship” from the Indian side after Yadav seemingly politicised the win by dedicating it to the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack in May.
Earlier this year, a brief but intense military escalation erupted after India launched air strikes in Pakistan over the Pahalgam attack in occupied Kashmir. Pakistan denied involvement, and the crisis eased following US intervention. Since then, relations have become exceedingly sour between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The PCB had lodged a complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Yadav’s remarks, leading to him reportedly being fined 30 per cent of his match fee after being found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.
Meanwhile, pacer Haris Rauf and opener Sahibzada Farhan were also reprimanded by the ICC for gestures made during the Asia Cup Super Four match against India.
Following the final, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated the Indian cricket team on winning the match, calling it a continuation of India’s Operation Sindoor.
Naqvi had also responded to Modi’s post on X, saying: “If war was your measure of pride, history already records your humiliating defeats at Pakistan’s hands,” in an apparent reference to Pakistan’s success during the conflict. He added that “no cricket match can rewrite that truth”.
“Dragging war into sport only exposes desperation and disgraces the very spirit of the game,” he had said.
