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Pakistan board's Mohsin Naqvi accused of trying to 'assert unnecessary pressure' on BCCI over Asia Cup
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has accused Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi of trying to 'assert unnecessary pressure' on India and ghosting the board's request as the future of the Asia Cup 2025 hangs in balance. The T20 tournament is expected to take place in September and while India are the designated host, there was a feeling that it was always going to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025.
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A neutral venue agreement has been reached between the BCCI and PCB regarding India-Pakistan matches in ICC tournaments. According to the agreement, neither India nor Pakistan will travel to the other's country if one is the designated host of an ICC event. As a result, it was felt that the Asia Cup would be held in the UAE to avoid forcing teams to play at a neutral venue later on.
Asia Cup future hangs in balance
However, the future of the Asia Cup 2025 has been mostly unclear since the Pahalgam terror attack that resulted in the loss of 26 lives and India's retaliatory attacks on Pakistan through Operation Sindoor. There have also been reports in Indian media that the BCCI would boycott the Asia Cup 20925, but that was later refuted by the board secretary.
The final resolution on the Asia Cup matter could be taken at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 24 July. The ACC is currently headed by PCB chairman Naqvi and the BCCI is not willing to travel to Dhaka for the AGM.
The relationship between India and Bangladesh has also worsened in the last one year and the Indian cricket team's white-ball tour to Bangladesh in August 2025 was also recently postponed to September 2026.
The ACC, however, is yet to get back to the BCCI regarding the request for a venue change, with only a few days left for the ACC AGM.
PCB's Naqvi playing games with BCCI?
Amid the whole drama, a BCCI source has said that Naqvi is trying to put BCCI under pressure by going AWOL and any resolution taken at the meeting will be rejected by the BCCI.
'Asia Cup can happen only if the meeting venue changes from Dhaka. ACC chairman Mohsin Naqvi is trying to assert unnecessary pressure on India for the meeting. We requested him to change the venue, but have received no response. BCCI will boycott any resolution if Mohsin Naqvi goes ahead with the meeting in Dhaka,' a BCCI source told news agency ANI.
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It will be interesting to see how things unfold from here, but it looks certain that if ACC doesn't change the location of the AGM, then we may see further delay in reaching a resolution over hosting the Asia Cup 2025.
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