By: Express News ServiceSeptember 29, 2025 12:53 PM IST 4 min readTeam India celebrates after winning the Asia Cup cricket final against Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)An uproar has emerged in Pakistan cricketing circles after India’s refusal to accept the Asia Cup trophy from Pakistan cricket board’s president Mohsin Naqvi. Former Pakistan player Kamran Akmal has said that PCB should announce immediately that they will never play against India.“Pakistan board should immediately say that ‘we should never play against India’. Let’s see what action ICC takes. What else evidence do you need after this? But the BCCI person is leading the ICC – how will he [Jay Shah] take any action? The other boards have to come together, say we can’t see this in cricket. Sports is not played at anyone’s home. If others don’t play them, then no money is going to come,” Akmal told ARY News.“The earlier these things can be controlled, the better for everybody. A neutral body has to be formed without Pakistan and India, make a committee of Australian, South African, New Zealand and let them decide on what action to be taken about all that has happened in this tournament,” Akmal said.“These cheap harkatein (behaviour) we shall keep seeing from India. We have seen in this tournament they have done as much damage to cricket as they could. PCB and ACC president took the right stand – take the trophy or not, it will be given by the president only. India will become the joke of the cricketing world.”Another former cricketer Bazid Khan said that ‘animosity’ has increased and that it ‘leaves a bad taste in the mouth’.“Whats the message sent to the world? This is a never-ending saga. Such hostility. Animosity has increased even more, it has never happened before. You are not even accepting the trophy. We had an idea that something like this might happen.. The whole purpose of the Asia Cup is to get all the Asian teams to play together. You say specifically if this person gives, we won’t take it. Even the presidency of ACC is on rotation – the whole aim of the Asia cup is to play together as a region and get ready to take on the rest of the world. That is defeated now. It’s been such a bizarre situation. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” Bazid Khan told PTV Sports Official.Akmal urged other cricketing boards to come together and take a stand. “Just because you are the richest board in the world you can’t do this ‘badmashi’. Cricket can’t be run like this. There are other sports in the world , we don’t see such stuff. All the neutral boards should come together. You have to lobby for these issues … We have to see what the cricketing legends of the past, from ours, theirs, the rest of the world, who sit in the commentary box etc.. will they give a statement on this? On how to stop all this,” Kamran Akmal said.Story continues below this adAnother former cricketer Basit Ali also agreed with Kamran, saying on ARY News, “All the boards have to come together and take action against India. But cricket is run on broadcasters. They get the most money from Pakistan and India. If Pakistan says we won’t play India, then the broadcasters will come to the road. Inside the ground, India have won, but outside it, they have lost. They might as well not come to play the tournament instead of doing all this. Who gets the infamy? Entire India, only. I know there are sensible people in India who will raise their voices.”Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd