By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Pakistan’s cricket chief Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday hit back at Indian media reports claiming he had apologised to India’s cricket board over a trophy handover row at the Asia Cup final, dismissing the allegations as “fabricated nonsense” and accusing New Delhi of dragging politics into the sport.
Naqvi, who chairs both the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), denied any wrongdoing in the incident that marred Sunday’s closing ceremony, where the Indian team refused to accept the winners’ trophy from him. The standoff marked a new low in already strained cricketing ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours, with Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav later complaining that his side had been denied the trophy despite clinching the title.
Indian media outlets, including India Today, Financial Express and Hindustan Times, had reported that Naqvi refused to present the trophy, and on Wednesday alleged he had now apologised to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) while still withholding it.
Responding to an India Today post 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 branded 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.”
The controversy erupted amid broader tensions stemming from Yadav’s dedication of India’s Asia Cup victory to victims of a May attack in Pahalgam, in occupied Kashmir. Naqvi had earlier expressed disappointment over the “lack of sportsmanship” from the Indian side in politicising the win.
The PCB lodged a complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Yadav’s remarks, leading to him reportedly being fined 30 percent of his match fee after being found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct.
Pakistani 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. The Pahalgam attack triggered a brief but intense military escalation in May this year, with India launching air strikes into Pakistan. Islamabad denied involvement, and the crisis eased following US intervention, but relations between the two countries have since soured further.
Following India’s Asia Cup triumph, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the team, describing the win as a continuation of “Operation Sindoor”. Naqvi 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 said.
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