By Zainab Shafiq 
Despite India’s five-wicket victory over Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 final at the Dubai International Stadium, the post-match scenes became the headline story. While the match itself delivered high drama on the field, the trophy ceremony turned into one of the most controversial moments in recent cricket history. At first, India refused to receive the Asia Cup 2025 trophy from the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, who was scheduled to present the silverware. And later, the blame was on his shoulder for reportedly walking away with the trophy, not letting anyone else hand it over to the winners.
Naqvi, who also serves as Pakistan’s Interior Minister, had been a constant presence throughout the tournament, and his role as trophy presenter was standard protocol. But India’s players made their stand clear: they would not accept the cup or medals from him.
“Despite India’s five-wicket victory over Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 final at Dubai International Stadium, the team walked away without their hard-earned trophy and medals. The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, refused to let anyone but himself hand over the silverware. The Indian team, strong in their stance, refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi,” read one report.
The decision sparked immediate backlash. Fans and analysts questioned how a team could win a continental tournament and yet walk away empty-handed from the podium. Even more fuel was added to the fire when, hours later, Indian players and leading sports pages like Sportskeeda began posting edited photos of the team with the trophy, images digitally altered to suggest that they had indeed celebrated with the cup.
Critics were quick to call the move disingenuous, suggesting that the edits were an attempt to rewrite what had unfolded on live television. Pakistani fans in particular mocked the approach, noting that instead of celebrating their cricketing triumph, India’s victory was now overshadowed by an avoidable controversy.
The saga escalated further when sections of the Indian media claimed that Mohsin Naqvi had allegedly taken the trophy with him after the ceremony. Reports surfaced with headlines calling him a “trophy chor”, a narrative that quickly went viral across Indian social platforms. However, these claims have not been independently verified. Officials from the ACC and PCB have not confirmed such an incident, and eyewitnesses at the venue maintain that the Indian team’s refusal to accept the trophy left Naqvi holding the cup by default.
India Calls Mohsin Naqvi Trophy Chor for Not Letting Anyone Else Handover Asia Cup 2025 Trophy to Winners
The irony of the accusation did not escape many observers. Commentators pointed out that it was India who refused the handover in the first place, a decision rooted not in cricket but in political optics. By rejecting Naqvi on stage, the team effectively left the trophy unattended, only to later criticize the very official they had shunned.
For Indian cricket, what should have been a proud moment, lifting the Asia Cup after defeating their fiercest rivals, has become clouded by off-field theatrics. The focus has shifted away from Suryakumar Yadav’s leadership, India’s clinical run chase, and their dominance throughout the tournament, toward a debate about role models, sportsmanship, and the boundaries between politics and sport.
On social media, the reactions were swift and polarized. While some Indian fans defended the team’s decision, others expressed disappointment that their victory had been reduced to a photo-editing exercise. Pakistani fans, meanwhile, revelled in the drama, amplifying hashtags mocking the episode and pointing to Salman Ali Agha’s contrastingly respectful comments in his own post-match press conference.
The Asia Cup has often been about more than just cricket, serving as a microcosm of the India-Pakistan rivalry both on and off the field. But rarely has the symbolism of the trophy ceremony been so stark. Refusing to take the cup from Naqvi was not just a rejection of an individual but a move that many believe disrespected the tournament itself.
For now, the questions linger. Did India undermine their own achievement by politicizing the handover? Was Naqvi within his rights as ACC president to insist on presenting the trophy? And will the controversy force cricket’s administrators to reconsider protocols in future tournaments?
What remains undeniable is that India’s triumph, instead of being remembered for a hard-fought cricketing display, will now be recalled for an empty podium, a missing trophy, and a flood of edited pictures that attempted to fill the void.
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