India captain Suryakumar Yadav lashed out at Asian Cricket Council (ACC) head Mohsin Naqvi’s ‘childish’ antics after he walked away with the Asia Cup trophy and medals meant for the victorious team. Surya and his men had refused to accept the silverware from Naqvi, who is also the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, after they beat Pakistan in a dramatic last-over finish to become the Asian champions for a record-extending 9th time.
“I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing and following cricket that a champion team is denied a trophy. I mean that too a hard-earned one. It’s not like it happened easily. It was a hard-earned tournament win,” Surya told reporters during a post-match interaction on Sunday night.
“We were here since September 4, we played a game today. Two back-to-back good games in two days. I feel we deserved it. And I can’t say anything more. I think I have summed it up really well,” he added with a smile while trying to hide his disappointment.
Surya said for him the real trophies are his teammates and the support staff that played key roles in India’s dominant run as they won all their seven matches including three against Pakistan.
“If you tell me about the trophies, my trophies are sitting in my dressing room. All the 14 guys with me. All the support staff. Those are the real trophies. These are real moments which I am taking back as lovely memories which will stay with me forever going forward. And that’s all,” Surya said.
Surya’s cheeky side came out when a journalist asked him to just narrate the chain of events that led to the team not accepting the trophy from the Interior Minister of Pakistan.
“Rinku Singh hit a four. India won the Asia Cup. After that, we came out and we were celebrating and we applauded every player’s achievement — Tilak, Kuldeep and Bhai (Abhishek) got a car. We celebrated that too. So, what more do you want? This was the chain of events that we wanted to achieve.
“And we also saw that the champions’ (flexi) board came and went back. We saw that too,” he went on. It’s okay. It keeps on happening. It’s a part of life,” he added.
With PTI Inputs
