SUNDAY’S Asia Cup final should have been remembered as a celebration of sport, of competitive cricket at its finest. Instead, what unfolded at the closing ceremony was a disheartening reminder of how politics continues to pollute the purity of the game.
India may have won the match by five wickets, clinching their record ninth Asia Cup title, but they left the field with more controversy than glory. By outright refusing to receive the winners’ trophy from Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Chief Mohsin Naqvi, the Indian team crossed a line that cricketing history will not forget lightly. The act was not just disrespectful to an official of the game, but to the spirit of cricket itself. This refusal marked a new low in Indo-Pak cricketing ties. Gone are the handshakes, the mutual respect and the grace that sport demands, even amidst rivalry. Instead, the Indian team’s actions appeared as a deliberate political maneuver—turning the closing ceremony into a diplomatic spectacle and denying fans the dignity of a proper conclusion. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post on X—referring to India’s cricket win as “Operation Sindoor” and equating it to military dominance—was both tasteless and inaccurate. One would hope that the leader of a nation would have the decorum to separate war from sport. Instead, he chose to mislead, rehashing a narrative debunked by reality. Let us remind the world of what actually happened. In this May’s conflict, it was the Pakistan Air Force that shot down Indian fighter jets. If the cricket pitch is where India triumphed on Sunday, the airspace was where Pakistan held its ground.
At home, the losses suffered by our national cricket team in the Asia Cup should also be a wake-up call for PCB. We must look inward. A team built on anything but merit will always come up short against giants. Training, mental strength, discipline and a ruthless focus on performance—these must form the backbone of our national side. While India must step back from using cricket as a stage for political theater, Pakistan must focus on rebuilding its cricket team with resolve and merit.
