A day after India's women's team declined to collect the Asia Cup trophy from Asian Cricket Council chairman Mohsin Naqvi, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla gave the board's fullest account yet of how the decision was made and received.
Speaking on September 15, Shukla said the decision not to accept the trophy from Naqvi was a collective one taken by the Indian camp, and that Naqvi himself did not push back on it. "We discussed the matter among ourselves and decided that we would not accept it (the trophy) from him. It was our collective decision," Shukla said. "He (Naqvi) also did not raise any objection to it." The comments follow BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia's earlier description of the move as a "conscious decision" communicated to the ACC ahead of the final.
Separately, India's Ministry of External Affairs was asked about the episode and declined to weigh in directly. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the matter "falls under the BCCI's purview and comes within its jurisdiction," keeping the government's public response limited to acknowledging the board's role rather than commenting on the substance of the decision.
Shukla's account, emphasising that Naqvi raised no objection, reads as an attempt by the BCCI to present the episode as a clean, uncontested call rather than a diplomatic flashpoint — consistent with how the board handled the near-identical situation after the men's Asia Cup final in 2025. With the government also declining to add its own commentary, the story looks set to fade without further escalation from either side, even as it remains a marker of how strained BCCI-PCB relations have been since the events of 2025.
More coverage of India's Asia Cup campaign is available on SportGod's blog, with India's next assignment — the Asian Games in Japan — tracked on SportGod's live matches page.
Shukla's quotes and the MEA's statement are verified against same-day reporting, current as of September 16, 2026.
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