In the ongoing Asian Cup trophy saga, Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chairman of Asian Cricket Council, was cornered by BCCI officials at the ACC annual general meeting in Dubai on Tuesday. BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla and board member Ashish Shelar raised strong objections on Naqvi’s decision to take away the Asia Cup and winners’ medals to his hotel.
BCCI officials told Naqvi that India has won the Cup, it has the right to take the trophy, the Cup belongs to ACC and it is not the personal property of Mohsin Naqvi.
Cornered, the PCB chief said, the Indian captain could collect it from him from the ACC office in Dubai. Naqvi insisted that another presentation ceremony be held in which he would personally hand over the Cup to Team India captain.
BCCI officials told him that it was India’s stance from the very beginning that its players and officials will not have any direct interaction with any Pakistani player or official during the tournament.
Naqvi, as ACC chief, was so mean-hearted that at the AGM he first congratulated Nepal for defeating West Indies. He congratulated Mongolia for becoming the new ACC members, but he refrained from congratulating Team India for winning the Cup.
BCCI official Ashish Shelar told him he should at least show the basic courtesy of congratulating Team India. Naqvi, at the end, grudgingly congratulated Team India.
Naqvi said, he waited on the dais for more than an hour to hand over the Cup to India. He said, I became the butt of jokes, a cartoon in the eyes of the world, and I will hand over the Cup and medals only when an award ceremony is held and when Team India agrees to take the trophy from me.
On this, BCCI officials said, India’s stance has already been made clear from the beginning. Its players will not have any direct interaction with any Pakistani player or official.
BCCI will now take up this issue with International Cricket Council, while the ACC has left the decision to the five test-playing members India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Officials of these five member-countries will meet soon.
Let me narrate what exactly happened on Sunday night in Dubai. It was clearly told before the award ceremony that Team India would not take the trophy from Mohsin Naqvi. It was then decided ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi, Emirates Cricket Board vice-chairman Khalif Al Zarooni and Bangladesh board chief Aminul Islam will stand on the podium, but Naqvi will not hand over any award or medal.
Indian and Pakistan players collected their awards for individual performance from the podium, but trouble arose when the Asia Cup trophy was to be given. Mohsin Naqvi grabbed the trophy and insisted that he would hand over the trophy to Team India.
Team India conveyed to Kiwi commentator Simon Doull that it would not take the trophy from Naqvi, since he is also the Home Minister of Pakistan and is also known for making anti-India remarks on social media.
The UAE hosts tried to find a middle path by speaking to Indian management and Naqvi. UAE officials first suggested that Bangladesh cricket board chief should hand over the Cup to Team India. Team India agreed, but Naqvi did not. He insisted that he would hand the Cup to Team India and no one else.
It was then proposed that the UAE board vice-president would give the Cup, but Naqvi torpedoed this offer too. He stood on the podium waiting for Team India to come. Indian players, who were present on the ground, did not go to the podium.
This drama went on for nearly one hour. Finally, Naqvi walked away in a huff, instructing his officials to take the trophy and winners’ medals to his hotel room. Team India then celebrated its victory on the ground minus the Cup.
What Mohsin Naqvi did can be described with an apt Hindi proverb (“Chori Aur Sinazori” – literal meaning, commit a theft and then brazen it out).
For the first time in cricket history, a winning team is demanding its trophy and the winning team players are waiting for their medals, but the chief of the losing team has grabbed the trophy and medals. His insistence is, “I will give the Cup and medals”.
It is the most shameful thing that the Asia Cup is lying in the hotel room of the person, whose team lost the tournament.
Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mohsin Naqvi is the world’s first cricket official, who ran away from the ground with the trophy.
For the first time, the chairman of Asian Cricket Counil stood on the dais like a cartoon and the players did not even look at him.
For the first time, the representatives of the winning team insisted on their right to get the Cup at the ACC meeting, but the loser team’s chief was so shameless that he did not budge an inch from his stand.
One must remind Naqvi, those playing street cricket exhibit such brazen manners. When a team starts losing, they snatch away the bat of the winning team and run.
Mohsin Naqvi has stooped to that level. The sooner he is relieved from the responsibility of ACC, the better it will be for cricket.

Internet ban : Taliban making a mistake

A complete internet blackout has been clamped in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. All internet and mobile network services are off. Fibre-optic internet services have been disrupted and Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Uruzgan are now cut off from the rest of the world.
No international calls are now possible because of the internet blackout. Online classes have come to a standstill and all online business transactions are off.
Earlier, Taliban had blacked out of fibre-optic ndetworks in some provinces like Balkh, Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan and Nimroz, but now this ban has been extended to the whole of Afghanistan.
Taliban government says, the ban is part of its crackdown on “immoral activities”. A government spokesman said, this was being done to “prevent vice” which is against the rules of Shariat.
Nobody should be surprised over the Taliban decision. There is no right to freedom of speech and expression in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women cannot study in schools, college and universities, and all sorts of medieval social restrictions have been imposed.
Internet today is the symbol of world freedom. It is the symbol of knowledge. Taliban government is allergic towards freedom and knowledge. This decision will ultimately hurt the Taliban regime and it will have to withdraw its ban, sooner or later.
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