Harmanpreet Kaur-led India beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs to win a record-extending eighth Girls's Asia Cup title. However after the match, the Indian gamers didn’t return to the sector for the presentation ceremony the place Naqvi, who can also be the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Pakistan's inside minister, was current.
Hours after the ultimate, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia defended the choice, saying scenario has modified after the 2025 Pahalgam terror assault.
“Our males’s crew gained the Asia Cup a yr and a half in the past. And our entire scenario, for the reason that April 2025 Pahalgam incident, modified after that. So, after that, there was strain on us from our residents that we shouldn’t hold any relations with our neighboring nation and never play cricket with them. However our authorities has a coverage that we should play towards each nation in multinational tournaments,” Saikia informed information company IANS.
“However that doesn’t imply we’ll comply with each situation laid out for us. Our army battle remains to be ongoing. One of many predominant leaders who’s working towards the pursuits of our nation; we are able to’t obtain the trophy from him. The Girls’s crew has expressed solidarity with the choice taken by the boys’s crew final yr,” Saikia mentioned.
Nevertheless, tv cameras confirmed Saikia assembly Naqvi throughout the match. As gamers shook fingers after the ultimate, the published confirmed the Royal Field on the Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium, the place Naqvi first greeted BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla after which had a dialog with Saikia.
Requested about that assembly, Saikia mentioned it was a part of regular match-day protocol and didn’t contradict the BCCI's stand on the trophy presentation.
"It's not as if we wouldn't meet anybody. I used to be sitting outdoors within the Royal Field seats proper from the toss till the top of the sport. Having sat there, I remained in that very same place all through the match. Everybody who got here met me throughout the match; somebody sat subsequent to me, then Rajeev Shukla got here and sat with me. The individual you talked about (Naqvi) additionally got here and sat alongside deputy chairman Khalid Sahib. That's only a regular custom—at any time when anybody comes, we meet and speak with everybody."
— ians_india (@ians_india)
It could be recalled that the Indian males’s crew had final yr declined to obtain the Asia Cup trophy and medals from Naqvi, who heads the Pakistan Cricket Board and can also be the Inside Minister of that nation.
The Indian crew is but to obtain the Asia Cup trophy, which has since been saved within the ACC workplace.
As an alternative the Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian aspect performed an impromptu celebration on the dais with out the bodily prize.
Nevertheless, this time the Indian girls’s crew members didn’t even return to the bottom after BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia introduced Nandini Sharma with an in-house finest fielder medal.
