The Asia Cup impasse has not just continued, but deepened, with BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia questioning the logic behind changing the old trophy presentation tradition. He raised the issue after the Indian women’s cricket team refused to accept the championship trophy from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and a minister in the Pakistan cabinet.
India are the current Asia Cup champions in both men’s and women’s cricket, winning the trophy in 2025 and 2026 respectively. On both occasions, incidentally in Dubai, a familiar scene unfolded as the teams refused to take the trophy from Naqvi, with the decision made before the presentation ceremony.
The men’s team did not take the podium last year in solidarity with the victims of the Pakistan-linked Pahalgam terror attack. The players also refused to shake hands with their Pakistan counterparts in any of their Asia Cup meetings last year and maintained that stance in subsequent ICC tournaments. The women’s team followed suit on Sunday in solidarity with the men’s team’s stance.
However, receiving the trophy from the ACC chairman was not always the norm at the Asia Cup. In 2022 and 2024, when Sri Lanka’s men’s and women’s teams won the title respectively, the Asia Cup trophy was presented by then Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Shammi Silva.
Speaking to India Today, Saikia pointed out that in earlier editions of the Asia Cup, the norm was for the winning team to receive the trophy from the head of its respective cricket board. While saying he did not want to get into the controversy, Saikia said the practice was changed in 2025, when India’s men won the Asia Cup.
“And as you are asking what happened after India winning the final match today, we made a request to all the concerned persons that, keeping the tradition of Asia Cup, when in earlier times when Bangladesh won, when Sri Lanka won, our former ACC chairperson, who is the ICC chair now, Jay Shah, there was a norm that the winning team will get the trophy from their country’s board’s head.
“If you look at Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in earlier occasions, and also for BCCI, once winning, so the head of the country, either the secretary or the president, was to hand over the trophy. This norm has been changed drastically in the last, in 2024-25, when India won the men’s Asia Cup trophy. I do not want to enter into this controversy, but the only thing is that the tradition is to be maintained.
Saikia said BCCI made a similar request for Sunday’s final as well.
“That is what our request was today also. It was not hidden today, and we requested that we not change our stance. Our stand is about one and a half years old now. Because of our stand, we have yet to receive the trophy for the men’s Asia Cup. So we cannot change it.”
The Indian board representatives, Saikia and vice-president Rajeev Shukla, even asked the ACC if the council’s deputy chairman could present the trophy to India.
“We can say that the deputy chairman of the ACC can hand over the trophy. That was our request, so that all these controversies can be avoided, because everybody knows what is happening on the ground.”
Saikia clarified that BCCI’s intention was not to create controversybut to reflect the circumstances surrounding India’s cricketing relationship with Pakistan.
“We know what is happening on the ground and what is happening across the borders. Everything is known to everyone. So we should not pretend we know nothing and that everything is hunky-dory. That is not the situation,” Saikia added.
