KARACHI:
India has grown increasingly upset over not receiving the Asia Cup trophy it won last month and has sent two letters to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), urging that the coveted silverware be dispatched to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) via courier.
However, ACC President Mohsin Naqvi responded by asking the BCCI to send an official and a player to attend a ceremony in Dubai on November 10 to receive the trophy in person. Since then, the Indian board has remained silent – at least for now.
India had courted controversy during last month’s Asia Cup after politicising the game. The team members refused to exchange the traditional handshake with Pakistani players in all three encounters – the group match, Super Four clash, and the final.
Although India won all three games and were crowned champions, they further fuelled the controversy by declining to accept the trophy from Naqvi at the award ceremony in Dubai, because he is a Pakistani.
Naqvi later made it clear that the trophy must now be collected in person from the ACC office. Sources said that in the second week of this month, BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla sent a letter to the ACC demanding the handover of the Asia Cup trophy.
In his reply, Naqvi reiterated that the ACC would hold a presentation ceremony in Dubai on November 10, where the BCCI could bring a member of the winning squad to collect the trophy. Sources added that on October 20, Shukla sent another letter requesting that the trophy be couriered instead.
If any BCCI official eventually travels to Dubai to receive the trophy, observers say questions will arise over why such unnecessary drama followed the final. The ACC, however, remains firm that the trophy will only be handed over in person.
Sources further noted that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has no authority to compel the ACC to send the trophy by courier.
