Dubai (PTI): Animosity between India and Pakistan team continued prior to the mega final of the Asia Cup with two presenters -- India's Ravi Shastri and Pakistan's Waqar Younis, conducting the snap interviews at the toss.
This is the first time in the history of international cricket that two former players will be conducting the toss interview as Pakistan didn't want to speak to Indian presenter Shastri following the bitter build-up to the title clash.
It is learnt that from among the broadcasters, Shastri, who has done the toss presentation during the earlier two Indo-Pak games in the tournament, had been assigned to speak to both Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Agha after the toss.
However, a request was sent to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a neutral presenter. When the ACC went back to BCCI with the request, they had clearly mentioned that Shastri can't be replaced.
As a middle-of-the-road solution, it was decided that Pakistan skipper Salman would speak to his country's pace legend Waqar, while Surya would interact with former India head coach Shastri.
Also, in a departure from convention, Salman did the trophy shoot alone instead of doing alongside his Indian counterpart.
As per sources in the BCCI, the ACC had never informed them about the toss photo-shoot. It must be mentioned that even during the 2024 T20 World Cup final in Barbados, there were no photoshoots involving India and South African skippers Rohit Sharma and Aiden Marrkram.
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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the Centre's response on a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, on the ground that those are allegedly discriminatory against women.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Panchol took note of the submissions made by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who appeared in the matter for petitioners Poulomi Pavini Shukla and the Nyaya Naari Foundation, and issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs.
The plea says the current Shariat inheritance rules are "manifestly discriminatory" against women, often granting them only half or less of the share allocated to their male counterparts.
Bhushan said the 1937 Act violates Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.
He said matters of succession are civil in nature and do not constitute an "essential religious practice" protected under Article 25.
"Saying women will get half or even less than half compared to male counterparts is discriminatory," the lawyer said.
