The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) head and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) President Mohsin Naqvi will be awarded the “Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Excellence Gold Medal”. This honor is being given to him for his “adventure and theory -based stance” during the Asia Cup Trophy controversy.
According to ‘The Nation’ report, Sindh and Karachi Basketball Association President Advocate Ghulam Abbas Jamal announced this. He said that Naqvi has “brought back” national pride “of Pakistan amid growing political and sports tension with India.
The dispute began after the Asia Cup final, when Indian players refused to take the trophy from Naqvi. After this, Naqvi kept the trophy with him and said on social media that “If the Indian team really wants, they can take it from the ACC headquarters.”
Naqvi wrote on X (first Twitter), “I did nothing wrong and I will not apologize to BCCI.” After this statement, he was highly appreciated in both sports and politics in Pakistan.
According to the report, a formal ceremony will be held in Karachi, in which Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be the chief guest. The date of the program will be decided after their availability.
The organizing committee is headed by Khalid Jamil Shamsi, chairman of Sindh Basketball Association, while sports director and commissioner Karachi Ghulam Mohammad Khan has been made Secretary.
Ghulam Abbas Jamal said, “This is not just a case of cricket, but a symbol of dignity and self -esteem is a message not to bend under pressure.”
The tension between India and Pakistan was already at the peak during the Asia Cup. India had refused its players to join hands with the Pakistani team. India won the final match, but refused to take the trophy from Naqvi.
Now the BCCI has taken up the matter at the ACC meeting and it is expected that it will be taken up in the ICC session in November. The whole matter happened when the tension between the two countries increased further after the Pahalgam terror attack, in response to which India took across the border under “Operation Sindoor”.