The Asia Cup, perhaps, ended in the most apt manner possible. After three weeks of back and forth, multiple handshakegates, geopolitical intrigue, ugly verbals, political symbols in the guise of celebrations 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 (he's also Pakistan's interior minister), Naqvi went home with the trophy and the Indian team celebrated with an imaginary one to end the night.
The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Devajit Saikia, promised a strong protest against Naqvi's public act of taking the trophy with him. "We have decided not to take the Asia Cup trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main [political] leaders of Pakistan," Saikia told ANI. "So we decided not to take it from him. But that does not mean that the gentleman will take away the trophy with him along with the medals. So it is very unfortunate and we hope that the trophy and the medals will be returned to India as soon as possible.
"There is an ICC conference in November in Dubai. In the next conference, we are going to launch a very serious and very strong protest against the act of the ACC chairperson."
As per protocol, Naqvi was the designated person to hand over the winners' title, something the BCCI would have known at least 24 hours in advance. While there was some tension in the air, nobody could have predicted what was about to happen as soon as Rinku Singh hit the winning runs in the final late on Sunday night.
Even as the Pakistan players trudged off the field of play and into the comforts of the dressing room, the vast majority of the Indian team hung around and posed for photos. The wait continued. On air, the commentators were struggling to identify the reasons for the delay. On the field of play, Naqvi was on the stage but it had become clear that there would be no rapprochement. Even if the India captain Suryakumar Yadav had no problems in shaking Naqvi's hand in a pre-tournament sit-down, the last two weeks had shown that this would be a new normal.
Even as the awkwardness filtered through on TV screens, Simon Doull, the MC, announced that the Indian team wouldn't be collecting the trophy 'tonight' (Sunday).
"At the press conference, Yadav said: "I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing cricket, started following cricket, that a champion team is denied a trophy, that too a hard-earned one," he said. "I feel we deserved it. I can't say anything more, I've summed it up really well. If you tell me about trophies, my trophies are sitting in the dressing room, all the 14 guys with me, the support staff, those are the real trophies throughout this journey in the Asia Cup."
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India disrespecting cricket: Pak captain
Pakistan captain Salman Agha said that the Indian team 'are disrespecting cricket'. "What India have done in this tournament is very disappointing," he said. "They are not disrespecting us by not shaking hands, they're disrespecting cricket. Good teams don't do what they did today (not accepting the trophy).
Agha also made the point that the Indian captain had no problems in shaking his hands in the pre-tournament press conference. "He shook hands with me in private at the start of the tournament," Agha said. "Both at the pre-tournament press conference and when we met in the referee's meeting. But when they're out in the world in front of the cameras, they don't shake our hands. I'm sure he's following the instructions he's been given, but if it was up to him, he'd shake hands with me."
A drama-filled three weeks of cricket in the desert, then, had the most apt ending. However, this latest souring of cricketing relations between the two countries could be set for another round of drama and intrigue as the two women's teams are primed to face each other in a World Cup encounter in Colombo next Sunday
