Asia Cup Cricket: India’s Trophies Piling Up in Pakistan!

Cricket is a game loved by the masses all over the globe and growing irrespective of their differences—political or religious or whatever—and nationalities. The grand gentleman’s sport is a passion in India and in Pakistan with fans waiting for their arch-rivals to meet as often as possible over the decades, apart from the other most prominent arch-rivals pair of Australia and England. However, it’s unfortunate political rivalries have been damaging the spirit of the game in the Indian subcontinent—India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at loggerheads that is depriving the common people of all the three countries to cherish the Tests/ODIs/T20Is on their own grounds. Yes! Neutral venues have been the ‘solution’ since quite a few years now. Nonetheless, Pakistan has been the worst affected due to the nation’s terror activities and therefore, the ‘solution’ has also been failing to solve the issues amicably. Cricket fans just cannot afford to give up watching while the respective Boards cannot afford to take a stand thanks to the huge money angle that we’ve written about a lot in these pages. Add to it the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) rules and schedules and its global championships/tournaments. The show must always go on!

Now, owing to the huge money angle and the revenues generated by cricket, politics and political leaders just cannot stay far behind, and politics in cricket is always the crux of the problem. This is applicable to all the nations concerned, not just India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And the respective cricket Boards just cannot be left alone handling the mammoth reservoirs of dough on their own and they cannot either take decisions in cricket matters involving national politics and policies thereof.

Why is Mohsin Naqvi so unacceptable? For the simple reason that apart from being the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) he is also the Interior Minister of Pakistan and per the standing policies or strategies of the country he too lambasted Operation Sindoor undertaken by the Indian Government to avenge the Pahalgam terror massacre. Such terror acts cannot be accepted under any circumstances by any nation, and the enmity thus generated in the affected countries naturally casts a shadow over the continuance of the sports relations between them. Therefore, the neutral venue of Dubai selected for the men’s Asia Cup-2025 and for the women’s Asia Cup-2026 has failed to settle the issues. However, fans of the subcontinent including the respective patriotic jingoists of the nations concerned could still enjoy the matches on the TV screens and cheer the winners vociferously. The problems peaked when both men’s and women’s India teams won the tournaments, but had to leave the Trophies behind!

Men’s Team India defeated Pakistan in the Asia Cup-2025 Final in Dubai—a match without the handshakes and full of gestures by players guided by the politics and policies of the respective nations. The Champion team refused to take the Trophy from the hands of Mohsin Naqvi who too refused to nominate someone else as he thought himself to be the worthiest, being the Chairman of PCB and President of the ACC. Only the other day when Team India won the women’s Asia Cup-2026 Final against Sri Lanka in Dubai they too refused to accept the Trophy. Because the worthiest fellow was again there to present it! Apart from being the worthiest he must’ve felt to be the most grudge-heaviest as his team failed to clinch the trophy on both occasions. And the Indian Teams and the fans celebrated without the trophies! No less cheers though, as far as the ‘rivalries’ are concerned!

The ACC says India is welcome to collect the Trophies any time they feel like! But we don’t see that happening soon, unfortunately. Therefore, trophies are piling up in Pakistan and this doesn’t augur well for the future! Although there’s still time for the next men’s Asia Cup in June-July, 2027, the current geo-political situation cannot guarantee any solution in the near future. Considering the form Team India has been in since the recent few years in both of the shorter formats another Asia Cup trophy cannot be ruled out! Women’s Asia Cup will also be due in 2028! The best at the moment for the Pak Interior Minister would be to focus on nominating the next worthy person to deliver the trophies to the righteous winners; on nation building with the economics of development without liaising with the terrorists, rendering more justice to Pakistan’s ‘mediator’ role to end the Trump-Iran war; and also to focus more on the woes afflicting the Pak cricket team for the last few years and on how to improve the performance of the players on the cricket field. That the Asia Cup-2027 is to be hosted by Bangladesh in Bangladesh is going to be another gnawing bone of contention, for, as we said before, neutral venues can no longer settle the issues.