In protest, Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) representative and ex-officio Ashish Shelar exited Wednesday’s Asian Cricket Council (ACC) online meeting midway after he failed to get clarity on when India would get the Asia Cup trophy and the players’ medals they won after beating Pakistan in the final on Sunday. Those in the know share that the Indian officials had questioned the ACC president and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi on this issue but he failed to give them a satisfactory reply.
“Shelar informed members that the BCCI secretary Devajit Sakia has already written to ACC about the same but there has been no response. The BCCI wants the trophy and medals to be delivered to ACC’s office in Dubai from where the Indian board will get it collected. However, Shelar didn’t get a positive response for the same. So Shelar and Shukla decided to quit the meeting marking their protest,” a top BCCI official told The Indian Express. He also went on to add that Naqvi, in his opening speech, didn’t extend his congratulations to the Indian officials for winning the title.
The meeting took place days after the bizarre sequence of events at the end of a tournament in which the Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with his Pakistan counter Salman Agha at the toss. During the final post-match presentation, the Indian team had refused to receive the trophy from Naqvi, who in turn didn’t agree to India’s demand.
A day after the final, Suryakumar had summed up the scenes that played out in Dubai on Sunday. In a chat with The Indian Express, he said that players didn’t go inside the dressing room and were waiting outside to collect the trophy. According to him, the Indian players waited for nearly an hour after they refused to receive the trophy from Naqvi, who is also his country’s interior minister.
“We didn’t close the door and sit inside the dressing room. We didn’t make anyone wait for the presentation ceremony. Trophy leke bhaag gaye woh (They ran away with the trophy). That’s what I saw. I don’t know, some people were making a video of us, but we were standing. We didn’t go inside,” the 34-year-old said.
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