After the massive drama that engulfed the 2025 men’s Asia Cup, the chairman of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), Mohsin Naqvi, is set to return to the Dubai International Cricket Stadium to present the trophy for the 2026 women’s final between India and Sri Lanka.
According to reports in the Pakistani media, Naqvi was attending the final as the chief guest. He will be at the closing ceremony, hoping to finally hand over the silverware to the champions.
Naqvi was present at the same ground for the India-Pakistan men’s final last year. But India, the winners, refused to receive the trophy from him, insisting on taking it from another ICC or ACC official instead.
India had used the tournament to send messages throughout, starting with rejecting the customary
handshakes before and after the match — something that’s still ongoing across men’s and women’s cricket matches between the two rival nations — in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack. The BCCI’s decision to boycott Naqvi was also based on his previous offensive comments about India.
Naqvi refused to allow any other official to hand over the trophy, causing a stalemate. Eventually, he left the ground with the trophy and took possession of it at the ACC office.
Indian administrators raised the issue at ICC meetings, but Naqvi refused to hand over the silverware, demanding that the team receive it from his office instead.
India scored 183 runs in the final, led by fifties from Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. If the team wins, it’ll need to decide, in conjunction to with the BCCI, if it wants to continue the boycott.
