BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia backed the Indian team’s stance against accepting the Women’s Asia Cup trophy from Mohsin Naqvi, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board and President of the Asian Cricket Council.

Following the terror attack in Pahalgam in April 2025 and the Indian government launching Operation Sindoor, the already tense relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated further. Despite the two teams continuing to play each other in multinational tournaments, there have been no customary post-match handshakes between the two teams, while the men’s team refused to receive the Asia Cup trophy last year from Naqvi.

The women’s team took a similar position on Sunday, after beating Sri Lanka by 72 runs in the final. While they were willing to accept the trophy instead from Khalid Al Zarooni, the vice-president of the ACC, Naqvi did not budge.

“Our men’s team won the Asia Cup a year and a half [a year] ago. And our whole situation since the Pahalgam incident in April 2025 changed after that. So after that there was pressure on us from our citizens that we shouldn’t keep any relations with our neighboring country and not play cricket with them. But our government has a policy that we must play against every country in multinational tournaments. So we are following that policy and abiding by that, the BCCI sends a squad to play every team,” Saikia told IANS following the Women’s Asia Cup final.

“But that doesn’t mean we will play and follow every condition laid out for us,” Saikia added. “The country with which our relations were already bad and which have deteriorated considerably since April 2025 - our operation is still ongoing. One of their key leaders [Naqvi] is working against the interests of our country - we cannot receive the trophy from him.

“A year ago, we did not accept the trophy in the Men’s Asia Cup. Our women’s team has also taken a decision today to express solidarity with that decision and did not accept the trophy in a similar situation,” he said.

Saikia, however, downplayed his interaction with Naqvi in the Royal Box during the final, where BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla was also present.

“It's not as if we wouldn't meet anyone,” Saikia said. “I was sitting outside in the Royal Box right from the toss until the end of the game. Everyone who came met me during the match. Shukla ji came and sat with me. The person you mentioned [Naqvi] also came and sat alongside Deputy Chairman Mr. Khalid. That's just a normal tradition - whenever anyone comes, we meet and talk with everyone.”

Saikia added that despite the efforts to resolve the impasse failing, there were no regrets.

“Today’s situation, we tried to solve it too but it was unsuccessful. But we have no regrets about it. Our objective was not focused on who would present the trophy. Our only objective was for the Indian team to win the match comfortably and we were successful in it,” he said.

Saikia also lauded the Indian women’s team for their dominant display throughout the Asia Cup, which they won unbeaten, while stating that the focus would now shift towards the upcoming Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. The women’s T20 event is set to commence on September 17, with India playing hosts Japan in the quarterfinals the following day.