How Pakistan’s Mohsin Naqvi is making Indian cricket powerhouse look helpless
New Delhi, Oct 21: It is nothing short of an embarrassment for the world’s richest cricket board. Despite all its muscle, influence, and self-proclaimed supremacy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has failed to reclaim what rightfully belongs to it — the Asia Cup trophy. And the reason? A stubborn Pakistani official named Mohsin Naqvi, who continues to hold the trophy hostage in Dubai.
The saga, bizarre as it sounds, has now turned into a matter of prestige — not for Pakistan, but for the BCCI, which has so far looked powerless and indecisive in dealing with an official who holds little global significance beyond the subcontinent.
According to sources within the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), Naqvi — who also doubles as Pakistan’s Interior Minister and Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) — has refused to hand over the trophy to India unless a representative from the BCCI personally collects it from the ACC headquarters in Dubai. The Indian board has flatly declined that offer, calling it a humiliation and a deliberate provocation.
Despite repeated communication — including a joint letter from BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, ACC representative Rajeev Shukla, and their counterparts from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan — Naqvi has remained defiant. “He has made it clear that unless someone from India comes to Dubai, he won’t release the trophy,” said a top ACC source.
Adding another twist to this already farcical episode, Naqvi has now offered to host a ceremony in Dubai on November 10, where he says he will personally hand over the Asia Cup trophy to the Indian men’s team.
Speaking to the media in Karachi, Naqvi said, “There was a series of letters exchanged with the BCCI, and the ACC has conveyed to them that we are ready to host Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav and his players with BCCI official Rajiv Shukla to take the trophy in a ceremony on November 10 in Dubai.”
He further added, “The ACC has written to the BCCI that a ceremony can be held in Dubai on November 10. Bring your captain and players and receive the trophy from me.”
The proposal, according to insiders, has been viewed within BCCI circles as yet another attempt to mock and publicly belittle the board. One senior BCCI official privately admitted that such a “ceremonial handover” is completely unnecessary and looks like a deliberate political stunt.
A Monumental Failure Under Political Watch
This trophy fiasco is not merely a cricketing embarrassment; it’s a stinging indictment of the BCCI’s administrative competence, an organisation whose key office-bearers are deeply connected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For a board that functions, as critics argue, like the BJP’s sporting arm, its impotence against a low-level Pakistani official is glaring. The silence and administrative sluggishness expose the hollowness behind the rhetoric of the Indian government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive, nationalistic posturing against Pakistan, particularly his tweet linking the cricket victory to a military operation, is reduced to mere loud-mouthed talk when the BCCI, effectively under the political watch of his party, cannot even secure a piece of silverware won fair and square. The grand pronouncements of a tough-on-Pakistan stance ring utterly hollow when the world’s richest cricket board, supposedly representing the nation’s pride, is being openly mocked and held to ransom over a trophy.
Why has the BJP-backed BCCI not leveraged its overwhelming financial and political clout in the ICC and ACC to resolve this in a matter of hours? Why is the board, which often dictates terms to global cricket, reduced to “lodging a protest” at a distant ICC meeting in November? This passive response is being interpreted by many as a monumental failure, suggesting that the much-hyped ‘naya Bharat’ (new India) aggression is all for the cameras, and when faced with real, petty confrontation, the administration folds. Naqvi’s defiant proposal to host a “ceremony” in Dubai on November 10 to finally hand over the trophy is a final slap in the face — a choreographed humiliation orchestrated by Pakistan while the mighty BCCI looks on, seemingly helpless and awaiting a minor official’s permission to claim its own prize.
The Dubai Dilemma
The trophy, by all means, should have been in India by now. Instead, it sits locked in a cabinet in Dubai, untouched and unclaimed, ever since the Indian team refused to accept it from Naqvi during the post-match ceremony on September 28. That unprecedented moment — when the ACC chief simply walked away with the silverware — symbolised the deep rot in the cricketing politics of the region.
Insiders say Naqvi, before returning to Pakistan, instructed ACC staff not to move or hand over the trophy without his direct orders. This petty move has now snowballed into an international embarrassment for the BCCI, which continues to “follow the process” instead of taking a stand.
Naqvi’s latest invitation for a grand event on November 10 only adds insult to injury. It’s being seen as an orchestrated attempt by Pakistan to project dominance in the one area where India has always claimed superiority — cricket.
BCCI’s Silence is Deafening
Is the BCCI, with all its might, afraid of confronting Pakistan? Is this what the board means when it claims to be the guardian of Asian cricket? For an organisation that flexes its financial clout at every opportunity, the silence and inaction are deafening.
While the BCCI has stated that it will raise the issue at the upcoming ICC meeting, the question remains — why wait? When will words turn into action? When will the BCCI stop hiding behind “protocol” and show the same aggression off the field that Indian players display on it? (Agencies)
