For the first time, ahead of the Asia Cup final between India and Pakistan today in Dubai, Pakistan captain Salman Agha opened up about the ‘no handshake’ controversy that has already rocked the cricket fraternity.
While speaking at the media conference, Salman described the situation as ‘unprecedented’ and stated that he has not seen or heard anything like this before in his life. “I have been playing cricket since 2007, and I have never seen two teams don’t shake hands. All I have heard is that such an incident has never occurred.”
He added, “Previously too, India and Pakistan matches have taken place, when situations were worse than this one, and then also handshakes used to happen. This is not good for cricket.” Rumors are also there that there will be no ‘captain’s photo shoot’ ahead of the final.
While reacting to this question, the Pakistan skipper had a simple response. “Let them do whatever, we will follow our protocol. It is up to them. We can’t do anything about that.”
Meanwhile, there is still no clarity on the captain’s photo shoot, anyway. Coming to the cricket aspect, India and Pakistan have played two matches so far in the Asia Cup, where India have won both, convincingly.
Still, it is not going to be simply a cricket match. The electric game in Dubai will be treated as a proxy war. For all those naive people who say, ‘sports should not mix with politics,’ they also realize that they have already been drawn into the warmth of this high-voltage match. India must be desperate to clinch the title, as both teams will be playing in the final for the first time in the Asia Cup.