No cheap act could dim India’s joy on Sunday, 28 September. After humbling Pakistan in the final, the champions were denied their rightful moment with the silverware, yet they rose to celebrate in golden spirit.

The trophy itself became a pawn in a petty drama.

Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mohsin Naqvi, also the head of Asian cricket, walked away with it after India refused to accept the prize from his hands . Their stand was firm, born in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack and the cross-border hostilities that followed. A team that refused handshakes with Pakistan’s cricketers was never going to take a trophy from Naqvi — a minister in the Pakistan government still in denial over the precision and intensity of India’s retaliatory strikes. From a man who provoked India durin

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