CHENNAI: The 2025 Men’s T20 Asia Cup, perhaps, ended in the most apt manner possible on Sunday.
After three weeks of back and forth, multiple handshakegates, geopolitical intrigue, ugly verbals, and press conference point scoring, the post-tournament ceremony finished in farcical circumstances.
India refused to take the trophy from the Asian Cricket Council chair Mohsin Naqvi (also Pakistan’s interior minister), Naqvi refused to cede ground and India celebrated with an imaginary one to end the night.
While the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia promised a strong protest against Naqvi’s act, the focus now shifts to what happens when India and Pakistan’s women’s teams face each other in the World Cup tie on October 5 in Colombo.
Will Harmanpreet Kaur shake hands with Pakistan’s Fatima Sana? Will the mood be more congenial? Will the current toxicity touch that game too? Only time will tell but the Indian captain wouldn’t be dragged to commenting on that game. Not yet, anyway.
On Friday, she said the focus is on the tie versus Sri Lanka on Tuesday. “Our main focus is on that because that game is going to set the tone for us. And secondly, all the teams are equally important.
We can only control the things we can control. We are not going to entertain anything else on the field because we are here to play cricket and our main focus will remain on cricket only,” Kaur said during the captain’s round table in Bengaluru.