Asian Games 2018: Why India should have sent football team to Indonesia 

The Indian football team have made it to the top 100 in the world rankings in 2018 and they were denied to take part at the 2018 Asian Games contingent by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

India has always played at the Asian Games from the start of the millennium, i.e the 2002 games in Doha.

The Blue Tigers failed to make it to the knockout phase in any of the previous outings, but since the start of the last year, it has been the most productive period in terms of rankings and results for them. They also reached the Asian Cup after a gap of seven years.

Not allowing to take part at the Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 was a push in the opposite direction for the national team, as vast majority of the countries that are playing in the Asia Cup 2019 participated at the games that was held in Jakarta and Palembang.

If we look at the IOA's comment as to why they did not send the football team, they said that only the teams that are there in the top eight in Asia, will be given a chance in the games, as they have more chance of getting a medal and the football team is incompetent for the tournament.

The decision seems fair enough, be in the top eight in Asia and go to the Asian games. However, have the teams that played in the games done well enough such that Stephen Constantine's men did not deserve a chance to play?

If we look at the team sports, then Hockey and Kabaddi have been productive with silver and bronze to both men and women. But in these two sports, we were expected to win medals, especially the latter, where India are world champions. It was a dismal showing for Kabaddi as they missed out on an easy two gold medals for India.

Hockey in India has come up to it's earlier standards after a slump in the past few years. The women's team did a fantastic job for the silver, whereas the men's team could not cross the Malaysia hurdle. The bronze medal was a consolation for the men's team. It was a good job, nonetheless beating Pakistan in the bronze medal match

Women's Hockey team with the silver medal

Sepaktakraw, which is a relatively unknown sport and is a cross of football and volleyball, played in the Southeast Asian countries, picked up a bronze medal in the team regu event.

Other than these, the handball team could not produce any big results and had to be content with a 10th place finish in the competition. The volleyball team too could not do any wonders. The men's team lost to Pakistan in the classification battle and could only finish 12th. Also, the women's team finished 10th out of 11 teams.

Looking at only the team sports, you can see the performance of Indian teams in the events. The Football team for sure deserved an opportunity to play in these games.

The rise in rankings for Sunil Chhetri led side would have benefited the team in the run-up to the Asia Cup in 2019 and the SAFF Cup due to start tomorrow. Due to this, the Under-23 team had to tour Australia for their preparatory camp.

The IOA needs to have a positive outlook to all the sports, and see that India is trying to be a better sporting nation. The teams which deserve a place in the quadrennial events should be sent and not be based only on rankings.

Who knows, India too might have made it to a medal match? Who knows...