India wins an eighth Women’s Asia Cup and leaves Dubai without the trophy

India beat Sri Lanka by 72 runs at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday night and left the ground without lifting the Women’s Asia Cup. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma put on 129 for the first wicket. India finished on 183 for 5. Sree Charani took four wickets as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 111. The crowd was 16,339, most of it Indian. None of that appeared on the presentation stand. Asian Cricket Council president Mohsin Naqvi, who is also Pakistan’s interior minister and chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, handed runners-up honours to Chamari Athapaththu. India stayed off the stage. The ceremony ended. The broadcast cut away.

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said the board had told the ACC before the final that India would not collect medals or the trophy from Naqvi. “We had taken a conscious decision considering all prevailing aspects, and our position had been communicated to the ACC in advance,” he told The Indian Express. To IANS he added that the women’s side was standing with the men’s team, which refused the same cup from the same man after last year’s men’s Asia Cup in the same city. “Our military conflict is still ongoing. One of the main leaders who is working against the interests of our country; we can’t receive the trophy from him.” He dated the hard line to the period after the Pahalgam attack in April 2025.

Coach Amol Muzumdar treated the missing silverware as a closed item. “That stand has been taken by BCCI and we stand by it,” he said. “For us, this tournament is over, we are the champions. That’s good enough. It was on the big board that India are the champions of Asia Cup 2026.” He pointed the squad toward the Asian Games and the ICC T20 World Cup later this year. Saikia said the on-field gap was the part that mattered: India had won every match in one-sided fashion and had pulled clear of the rest of the continent.

The men’s precedent still sits in the cupboard. After the 2025 men’s final, India waited more than an hour and then declined the presentation. Naqvi left with the trophy. BCCI officials say it has not been handed over. Sunday’s women’s final repeated the choreography with less waiting and the same result. Sri Lanka took their medals. India posed on the field after the last wicket and did not walk up the steps. Fireworks and confetti still went off. There were no pictures of Harmanpreet with the cup.

Naqvi sat through the match among ACC and BCCI officials, including vice-president Rajeev Shukla and Saikia. He still came on stage for the runners-up cheque. Once it was clear India would not move, he walked off. That sequence will now govern every ACC event where he is the presenting officer and an Indian side is the winner. The board has not said what it will do if the presenter is someone else. It has said the team will play. Participation and the handshake at the end have been split into two policies.

On the field the final was straightforward. The opening stand of 129 removed the need for a middle-order rescue. Sri Lanka never recovered a required rate that jumped once Charani found her length. Athapaththu’s side collected silver and left. India collected a record eighth women’s title, extending a run no other Asian side has matched, and collected no object to put in a cabinet. President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent congratulations that named the win and did not name the stand-off.

The next test of the policy is logistical. The ACC still has to decide where the physical trophy lives. India still has to decide whether a later ceremony with a different official is acceptable. Players still have to answer the same question in mixed zones. Muzumdar’s line is the one the dressing room can use: the board already decided, the scoreboard already printed the winner, the World Cup is next. The political line is Saikia’s. As long as Naqvi is the man with the cup in his hands, the Indian team will treat the presentation as optional and the title as already banked.