Prime Minister Narendra Modi was left in splits after his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon humorously joked about their recent ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final loss to India in Dubai. New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon and his delegation were in New Delhi to hold a meeting with PM Modi on a wide range of topics including sports.
While addressing the media jointly, PM Christopher Luxon jokingly said that he and PM Modi had mutually agreed to not discuss about the final loss in Dubai to avoid “major diplomatic incident”.
“I do want to say to the Prime Minister I really have appreciated him not raising another recent loss of New Zealand to India in the recent game that we played in Dubai. But I haven’t mentioned any of the Test series wins that we had on our recent trips to India either,” said PM Christopher Luxon.
“So, let’s just keep it that way and avoid a major diplomatic incident,” he added. Reacted to this, PM Modi couldn’t stop laughing during the banter. Not just PM Modi, former New Zealand cricketer Ross Taylor, also a part of the delegation, was left in splits too.
Just a week before India had beaten New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy by four wickets in Dubai to lift the title for the third time. Prior to that, India had emerged victorious against the Kiwis in the group fixture too.
On the contrary, New Zealand had success when they toured India for a three-match Test series last year. The Kiwis had beaten India 3-0 – the latter’s first-ever whitewash at the hands of New Zealand.
India-NZ to celebrate 100-year anniversary
PM Christopher Luxon and PM Modi also announced that both countries will celebrate a 100-year anniversary of the India-New Zealand sporting ties in 2026. The Indian cricket team is likely to tour New Zealand in November 2026 to mark the occasion.
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