Mohsin Naqvi Loses Asian Council Support, Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal Raring To Replace Him

Mohsin Naqvi is set to lose his ACC chief position next year. Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh aims to replace him.

Pakistan politician Mohsin Naqvi is all set to lose his position as the chief of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) next year when his current two-year-long tenure comes to an end. While he’s allowed to seek an extension and there’s precedent for it too, Naqvi has reportedly lost the support of at least three of the five member nations — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

According to Cricbuzz, Naqvi might make a case for an extension until the ACC Annual General Meeting (AGM), but is unlikely to get it as the body’s presidency runs on two-year terms. The report said the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chairman, former men’s international captain Tamim Iqbal, wants to replace Naqvi in the job and has ‘conveyed his intentions’ to the members.

ACC Chairmanship operates on a rotational basis among the full members and requires a unanimous vote, which Naqvi had in 2025, before the Pahalgam terror attack and the fiasco of the men’s Asia Cup. India’s Jay Shah, who was the BCCI secretary at the time and is now the ICC chairman, served for three years from 2022 to 2024, but by unanimous vote, including from Sri Lanka, which accepted not taking the presidency.

Huge power shift at the ACC

This would be good news for India. The ACC is an important body for supporting grassroots cricket around Asia, but in Naqvi’s term, it was reduced to a political circus.

India refused to take both the men’s and women’s Asia Cup trophies from him, and he remained adamant about not allowing anyone else to hand the silverware over on each occasion.

Naqvi met Iqbal in early 2026 amid the India-Bangladesh tussle and the Mustafizur Rahman saga, which saw Bangladesh pull out of the T20 World Cup. The Pakistani was holding meetings in Bangladesh as the then pro-Pakistani government had put immense strain on the Indo-Bangla relationship.

However, when Tamim became the BCB president in June, he spoke about restoring a friendly relationship with India, and under him, the board ruled that it should not have pulled out of the T20 World Cup. He would almost certainly be more friendly towards India as the ACC president.

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