Is Mohsin Naqvi now cricket's troublemaker-in-chief?

From handshake rows to World Cup boycotts, Mohsin Naqvi has kept cricket on edge. His confrontations with India have turned administration into spectacle, dragging the game into politics instead of letting it breathe.

“Mujhe jo chahiye, woh main leke rahunga, chahe poori duniya mere khilaaf kyun na ho.”

It sounds like something lifted straight out of a Bollywood villain’s monologue, but over the past year, it has come to fit Mohsin Naqvi almost uncomfortably well. The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman has turned himself into one of world cricket’s most combustible characters, especially whenever India wanders into the picture.

Naqvi has rarely let the game breathe. From the Asia Cup chaos, where India’s title celebrations somehow became about him, to the latest government-backed decision to skip an India clash at the T20 World Cup, his tenure has felt less like cricket administration and more like a running political thriller. Naqvi has been on a war to make the cricket world hold India in their bad books. (AP Photo)

Press conferences, tweets and delayed ceremonies have often carried more weight than what happened on the field.

Each episode, taken alone, might pass off as a one-off reaction. Put together, they read like a pattern.

A handshake turns into a protest. A trophy presentation becomes a standoff. A scheduling issue snowballs into a global tournament dilemma. The September 2025 handshake controversy opened the door. The Asia Cup final fallout pushed it wider. Now, the T20 World Cup boycott threat has blown it off its hinges.