India won the Women’s Asia Cup for a record eighth time but the celebration came with a twist. The team refused to accept the trophy from Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and according to a report by a leading publication, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) had reportedly already informed the ACC (Asian Cricket Council) beforehand that India would not accept the trophy from Mohsin Naqvi if they won. So when the moment actually arrived, it shouldn’t have caught Pakistan’s Interior Minister off guard.
Harmanpreet Kaur and her team beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs to seal the title, marking India’s eighth Women’s Asia Cup crown. But instead of a smooth victory ceremony, what followed was an awkward, drawn-out affair. Nearly 40 minutes passed between the fall of Sri Lanka’s last wicket and the start of the presentation, a long, unexplained gap that hinted something was off.
The ceremony itself unfolded strangely. Match officials were handed their mementoes first. Then Sri Lanka’s captain Chamari Athapaththu along with her teammates and coaching staff came forward one by one to collect their runners-up medals. Chamari Athapaththu also received the runners-up cheque directly from Mohsin Naqvi who was there in his role as ACC president, before she gave a brief interview to the broadcaster.
And then, the broadcast simply ended. Viewers never got to see the Indian players receive their winners’ medals or lift the Asia Cup trophy on screen.
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India’s head coach Amol Muzumdar addressed the situation at the post-match press conference. He confirmed that the decision to not accept the trophy came from the BCCI and that the team fully supported it. He said that as far as the players were concerned, the tournament was already over, they were the champions and that recognition, shown clearly on the big screen declaring India as Asia Cup 2026 winners, was enough for them. When asked when the team might actually receive the trophy, he said there was no update yet and that he couldn’t say more on the matter.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. The situation echoes what happened during last September’s men’s Asia Cup final, held at the same venue, where India also declined to accept the trophy from Mohsin Naqvi. That episode had dragged the post-match presentation out for over an hour.
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