Dubai: Being denied a deserving trophy after winning a marquee event is a first for India’s T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav but he is unruffled thanks to his 14 “priceless” teammates, each one of them as “precious” as the Asia Cup silverware.
Having won the Asia Cup beating Pakistan for the third time in a space of two weeks, Suryakumar and the team refused to take the trophy from Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the Pakistan Cricket Board chief and more importantly the ‘Interior Minister’ of his country, known for his vocal anti-India stand.
Since the Indian team didn’t take the trophy from Naqvi, the presentation ceremony was concluded with Naqvi leaving the dais and taking the trophy with him on Sunday night.
“I think this is one thing which I have never seen since I started playing and following cricket, that a champion team is denied a trophy. I mean that too a hard-earned one. It’s not like it happened easily. It was a hard-earned tournament win,” Suryakumar replied to a query from PTI on how it felt being denied the biggest prize after winning seven games at the continental showpiece.
“We were here since September 4, we played a game today. Two back-to-back good games in two days. I feel we deserved it. And I can’t say anything more. I think I have summed it up really well,” the Indian skipper tried to hide his disappointment behind a smile.
But then sent a heart-warming message to his teammates, including ‘flavour of the month’ Abhishek Sharma, who was sitting by his side.
“If you tell me about the trophies, my trophies are sitting in my dressing room. All 14 guys are with me. All the support staff. Those are the real trophies. These are real moments which I am taking back as lovely memories which will stay with me forever going forward. And that’s all.”
“When the game is done, only the champions will be remembered and not the picture of a trophy,” he later posted on ‘X’.
It’s been close to 14 months since he was appointed T20 captain and this was certainly the biggest tournament for him even though his own bat remained quiet through it all. The sense of disappointment lingers but when he saw “India, Asia Cup, 2025 Champions,” it vanishes in thin air.
Suryakumar also kept his composure when a Pakistani journalist accused him of bringing in petty politics on the cricket field by refusing to shake hands with his counterpart Salman Ali Agha and also not showing up for the customary pre-final photoshoot.
When the Indian media manager wanted to stop the scribe, Surya smiled at him and said, “You are getting angry, right? Why are you getting so angry? and you (referring to the journalist) asked four questions in one.”
Another Pakistani journalist tried to put him in a spot by asking if he knew about BCCI mailing to ACC that the team won’t receive the trophy from Naqvi.
“I don’t know what you’re saying about the e-mail. I have no idea about this. We took this call on the ground. No one told us to do this.
“And we were waiting. I think if you win a tournament, do you deserve the trophy or not? You tell me,” the skipper countered, and the scribe from India’s neighbouring nation could only nod in agreement.
Through AI, a picture of Asia Cup being held by Surya and Tilak is circulating on social media and when the skipper was asked how did the celebrations go without the trophy, he was ready with a quick repartee.
“You haven’t seen the trophy? I have brought it. The team was sitting on the podium. And Abhishek and Shubman have already posted the photo with the trophy. It looks so good. See, how it is.”
Surya’s cheeky side came out when a journalist asked him to just narrate the chain of events that led to the team not accepting the trophy from the Interior Minister of Pakistan.
“Rinku Singh hit a four. India won the Asia Cup. After that, we came out and we were celebrating and we applauded every player’s achievement — Tilak, Kuldeep and Bhai (Abhishek) got a car. We celebrated that too. So, what more do you want? This was the chain of events that we wanted to achieve.
“And we also saw that the champions’ (flexi) board came and went back. We saw that too,” he went on.
“It’s okay. It keeps on happening. It’s a part of life,” he shrugged.
PTI
