Dubai: India players took a subtle dig at their Pakistan counterparts and the PCB chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, by mimicking their celebrations, sending bold messages, and posting pictures with a fake trophy. The Asia Cup concluded with India adding another trophy to its cabinet with a five-wicket win over Pakistan in the final in Dubai on Sunday.
In pursuit of a 147-run target, India’s top-order faltered and withered at 20/3 in the fourth over of the powerplay. Tilak Varma steadied the world champions’ sinking ship and injected the much-needed impetus to drive India past the finishing line. He maintained the flow of runs with Sanju Samson and upped the ante with Shivam Dube to knock Pakistan off the perch. He completed his 4th T20I half-century in 41 balls and remained unbeaten on 69(53) as the world champions basked in the Asia Cup glory with a five-wicket triumph.
Soon after India’s win, Arshdeep Singh, the leading wicket-taker for the nation in T20Is, shared a video on Instagram in which he imitated Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed’s trademark celebration alongside Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana, with Samson watching them while carrying a beaming smile on his face.
India’s stylish all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who missed the final due to a niggle, recreated his T20 World Cup 2024 celebration, but inserted a fake trophy image in his post as well. India vice-captain Shubman Gill shared a picture with his long-time friend Abhishek Sharma with a virtual image of the trophy between them.
Abhishek, the world number one T20I batter and the tournament’s highest run-getter, was involved in a heated exchange with Pakistan speedster Haris Rauf. During his celebratory post, he subtly took a dig at Pakistan by captioning it, “Wins make the loudest noise, always.” Tilak, the prime architect of Pakistan’s downfall, was in sync with Abhishek’s views and wrote on Instagram, “Talking is easy, winning takes character.”
The fake trophy memes originated from India’s disappointing end to the night, not lifting the trophy despite being crowned champions. Pandemonium ensued after India’s nerve-jangling victory, with the post-match presentation being delayed by more than an hour.
Eventually, the post-match presentation began, and the India players turned up to collect the individual awards. Kuldeep Yadav, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma received their individual awards from other dignitaries on stage, while Salman accepted the runners-up cheque from PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi. The Indian players did not acknowledge Naqvi. The ACC chairman didn’t applaud the Indian players who came up to receive their personal accolades.
Simon Doull, the presenter for the host broadcaster towards the end of the ceremony, confirmed that, “I have been informed by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) that the Indian cricket team will not be collecting their awards tonight. So that does conclude the post-match presentation.”
Eventually, the speculations cleared up after it was confirmed by the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia. He revealed that India had refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy during the presentation ceremony from ACC Chairman Naqvi, who also serves as Pakistan’s interior minister.
“We have decided not to take the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main leaders of Pakistan. So we decided not to take it from him. But that does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him, along with the medals. So it is very unfortunate and unsportsmanlike, and we hope that the trophy and the medals will be returned to India as soon as possible. There is an ICC conference in November in Dubai. In the next conference, we are going to launch a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson,” Saikia told ANI.
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav gave his take on the entire incident and told reporters that he had not seen anything like it, and said, “I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing cricket, started following cricket, that a champion team is denied a trophy, that too a hard-earned one. I feel we deserved it. I can’t say anything more; I’ve summed it up really well. If you tell me about trophies, my trophies are sitting in the dressing room, all the 14 guys with me, the support staff, those are the real trophies throughout this journey in the Asia Cup.”
