Dubai: Pakistani captain Salman Ali Aga has described the Indian team’s policy as abusive to the game for not joining hands in the Asia Cup. Salman also said that this will not set a good example of sportsmanship among young fans who consider cricketers as a role model.
India won the title by defeating Pakistan by five wickets in the Asia Cup final on Sunday. Pakistani captain said in a press conference after the match:
What India did in the tournament is quite disappointing. They have insulted cricket, not ours, not with hands. Good teams do not do what they did. We went to the photo shoot with the trophy by ourselves because we wanted to fulfill our responsibility. We stood there and took our medals. I do not want to use harsh words, but their behavior was quite derogatory.
Salman Aga claimed that Suryakumar was publicly and private behavior was different. He said:
He privately joined hands with me before the tournament started and in the press conference before the tournament. After this, even during the referee hearing, but they do not join hands in front of the world and cameras. I am sure that the instructions they have received must be following the same, but if he had to decide, he would have joined hands with me.
Defending the decision of Mohsin Naqvi, president of the Asian Cricket Council to stand on the prize ceremony stage before taking the trophy along, he said that India was not given the trophy because he did not want to take the PCB chief. He said:
Whatever happened today was the result of all the earlier developments. The ACC president gives the trophy to the winner. If you do not want to take the trophy from them, then how will you get it. I have seen this for the first time. Whatever happened in the tournament was very bad. Hopefully it will be stopped at some time because it is not good for cricket.
He said, ‘I am not only the captain of Pakistan but also a fan of cricket. If a child is watching cricket in India or Pakistan, then we are not giving them the right message. People consider us as a role model, but if we behave like this, we are not inspiring them. You should ask people (India) responsible for this, not me.
At the end of the press conference, Salman claimed that the entire match fee of the Pakistani team will go to the families of those killed during the operation vermilion. The Asia Cup was the first cricket match between the two countries after the Indian Army’s operation vermilion at terrorist bases in Pakistan after the death of 26 tourists in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in April.