When Pakistan plays India in the Asia Cup final in Dubai on Sunday, Mohsin Naqvi, the chairman of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and Pakistan’s interior minister, will be present. It will be interesting to watch how the Indian team reacts to his presence at the presentation ceremony after the game.
Moreover, Naqvi leads the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and although a Board chief attending a cricket match isn’t a huge matter, Naqvi’s requirement to attend the post-final presentation ceremony in his role as ACC chief has the potential to turn into a contentious issue.
He will have every right to present the trophy and shake hands with both teams as the head of the continental organization.
It is quite doubtful that the BCCI will permit its players to interact with a PCB president whose public position has been anti-Indian, given that the Indian team has a “No Handshake” policy with Pakistan.
The Indian board has yet to publicly state its position on Naqvi. Furthermore, the PCB accused match referee Andy Pycroft of forbidding the exchange of pleasantries following the game in Dubai on September 14 at Naqvi’s demand; the ICC categorically denied this accusation.
Later, it was Naqvi who pushed for a ban on India captain Suryakumar Yadav, with the PCB slapping Level 4 charges on him for dedicating the September 14 win to the Indian Armed Forces and expressing solidarity with families of the Pahalgam terror attack victims.
In recent days, Naqvi has twice shared a cryptic video on ‘X’—Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal celebration spliced with a plane crash. The gesture mirrors the one Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf repeatedly used during the September 21 clash against India, which later earned him a fine.
