Mohsin Naqvi openly ‘welcomes’ Indian team to come up and take their Asia Cup 2025 trophy

In a post on X, Mohsin Naqvi rejected reports claiming that he, at the ACC AGM on Tuesday, apologized to BCCI officials for his actions at the presentation ceremony on Sunday when he walked away with the trophy after the Indians refused to accept it from him. Naqvi is also the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and interior minister of his country with a pronounced anti-India political position.

“As ACC President, I was ready to hand over the trophy that very day and I am still ready now. If they truly want it, they are welcome to come to the ACC office and collect it from me. 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 wrote.

Ashish Shelar and Rajeev Shukla had represented the BCCI in the ACC AGM where they raised a strong objection over the trophy not being duly handed over to the Suryakumar Yadav-led side which beat Pakistan in the final.

Mohsin Naqvi had told the BCCI officials on Tuesday that he was ready to give the trophy to the Indian team. However, no decision on that issue was taken in the AGM, upsetting the BCCI top brass further. The BCCI will take the matter to the ICC which will have its meeting in November.

The hostilities between the two neighbours are at an all-time high after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Indian tourists were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists. India had subsequently launched military action under ‘Operation Sindoor’ to dismantle terror infrastructure across the border.