ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman and Chief of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Mohsin Naqvi has vehemently criticized Indian PM Modi for “dragging war into sport”, asserting that such statements cheapen the sporting spirit.
Lashing out at the Indian Prime Minister Modi, Naqvi, who is the nation’s interior minister, said history has already documented India’s shameful defeats at the hands of Pakistan on the battlefield and warned that politicizing sport with war was a sign of desperation, not pride.
“If war was your benchmark of pride, history already tells us about your shameful defeats at Pakistan’s hands. No cricket match can undo that fact.” Bringing war into sport merely brings out desperation and disrespects the very essence of the game,” Naqvi wrote in a post on X.
The comment was made against the backdrop of Modi’s irrational tweet following India’s victory over Pakistan in Sunday’s Asia Cup 2025 final, where the Indian prime minister had compared the cricket victory to “Operation Sindoor” to extend greetings to his players, to host universal criticism that the observation militarizes a sporting event.
Taking a dig at the Indian leader, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also chipped in with the criticism, saying that Modi was wrecking the culture and essence of cricket for political purposes, thus reducing hopes of peace and conflict resolution in the subcontinent.
