India again refused to accept a tournament trophy from Asian Cricket Council Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday, with their women’s team this time throwing the closing ceremony into uncertainty and delay.
The trophy presentation at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium was delayed by more than half an hour after India secured a 72-run victory over Sri Lanka in the final, Hindustan Times reported.
Naqvi, also the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and the country’s interior minister, stood on the stage as the audience waited for India to collect their trophy.
ESPNCricinfo reported that the presentation ceremony wrapped up “without the Indian team collecting their winners’ medals or the trophy”. Live visuals from the stadium confirmed the same.
However, Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu picked up the runners-up cheque from Naqvi, the outlet added.
The final ball of the match was done by 9:55pm UAE time (10:55pm PKT), and by 10:30pm (11:30pm PKT), there were “no signs of the presentation ceremony starting”, Hindustan Times noted.
The outlet pointed out that broadcasters interviewed Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur “immediately”, even though the interview is usually kept for the end of the presentation ceremony.
Asked whether his team’s refusal to accept the trophy was “pre-decided”, head coach Amol Muzumdar said the “stand has been taken by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), and we stand by it”.
“For us, this tournament is over. We are the champions; that’s good enough. It was on the big board that India are the champions of Asia Cup 2026,” he told a post-match press conference in Dubai.
Asked whether the trophy will end with the same fate as the men’s trophy from last year, Muzumdar said, “No news as yet. So I cannot answer that.”
On a query about the decision impacting sportsmanship, the coach reiterated that the team stood by the BCCI’s stance and that the tournament was “officially over” for them.
Sunday’s scenes illustrated a replay of what had played out in October last year, when India refused to collect the trophy at the closing ceremony of the Men’s Asia Cup final as tensions from their May 2025 military conflict spilt over into the cricket field.
At the time, India had beaten Pakistan by five wickets, but they caused the post-final formalities to be inordinately delayed due to their refusal to budge from their stance.
There were also no customary handshakes between the teams after India refused to do so, with tensions high from their previous two clashes in the competition, which witnessed political posturing and aggressive on-field behaviour.
‘Destroying the sports culture’
Reacting to the development, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry said India’s “diplomatic defeat and military defeat will not be erased” by refusing to accept the trophy.
Speaking to Geo News, he slammed India for “destroying the sports culture”. “Sports spirit matters. If you do not have that spirit, then victory or defeat means nothing,” he added.
Chaudhry said New Delhi had “filled jingoism in their entire nation”. “Our sports culture, which was a symbol of peace and love and which ended many wars, has been eroded.”
The state minister asserted that Pakistan had not “politicised” sports or made it the target of conflict between the two countries, and was open to dialogue on “every controversial issue”.
The finale
Shree Charani’s fantastic four-wicket haul helped India crush Sri Lanka by 72 runs to lift the Asia Cup title for the eighth time.
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both towered the innings with 59 and 68 runs, respectively, as the Indian team managed to post 185 runs on the board in the allotted 20 overs with five wickets to spare.
Charani, outracing Deepti Sharma, who grabbed three wickets, dismantled the Sri Lankan lineup, with only Athapaththu, Vishmi Gunaratne, and Nilakshi de Silva entering the double figures.
Athapaththu, after scoring 36 off 32 balls, emerged as the top run-getter for outclassed Sri Lanka.
Kaur maintained that India played to their standard.
“We know they are a great team. But we played to our standards. We set high standards for ourselves, and we wanted to keep matching them.
“Very happy with the way we all performed. The openers did a great job for us. The way Shafali and Smriti bat like they did. Great to see someone like Shafali take responsibility through the tournament with the bat and ball,” she said.
In her comments, the Sri Lankan skipper said they will “bounce back” for the upcoming Asian Games.
“This is the part of the game: one team wins, one team loses. But at the end of the day, we did not play our best game in all three departments. They played very well. But we will bounce back,” Athapaththu said in a post-match talk.
“We played really good cricket throughout the tournament, but today we struggled a little bit,” she added.
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