As anticipation builds for the Asia Cup 2025 final between Pakistan and India on Sunday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor criticised the Indian players for refusing to shake hands with the Pakistani team during the ongoing tournament.
In remarks to Indian news outlet ANI, Tharoor stressed that sports should be kept separate from political or military tensions, noting that once teams commit to playing, they must respect the spirit of the game.
“I personally feel that once the decision was made to play, if we feel so strongly about Pakistan, then we should not have played them at all. But if we are going to play, we should play in the spirit of the game and shake hands. We did this even in 1999 during the Kargil War, when soldiers were dying on the frontlines, and yet we shook hands with Pakistan during the World Cup in England,” the Indian opposition leader said.
Tharoor further stressed that cricket has its own spirit, separate from tensions between nations and their armies.
The issue arose during the high-profile game between the arch-rivals, which drew significant attention both on and off the field.
Tensions had heightened at the toss during the group stage match when both teams skipped the traditional handshake, reportedly at the match referee’s advice.
India won the group-stage match by seven wickets, but skipper Yadav crossed all boundaries of sportsmanship by using his post-match presentation speech to drag politics into cricket.
The PCB, in its complaint, accused the Indian captain of politicising cricket and violating the ICC’s code of conduct on neutrality.
However, the ICC formally reprimanded Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav over his political statements after their Asia Cup game against Pakistan on September 14, according to sources.
