"Whatever happened that day was not right" - PKL technical director E Prasad Rao on controversial kabaddi final in Asian Games 2023

Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) technical director E Prasad Rao recently spoke to Sportskeeda about the controversy that took place in the gold medal match of the Asian Games 2023 between India and Iran.

The Indian team beat Iran 33-29 in a final that was stopped after controversy erupted in Hangzhou. With the scoreline reading 28-28 with a minute and five seconds left, Pawan Sehrawat went for an important raid for India.

However, Sehrawat went out of bounds without touching any of the Iranian players. But three defenders tried to force Sehrawat out of bounds. Whether or not Sehrawat was tackled or not led to confusion.

After players from both India and Iran sat for a protest, India were declared the winner. Prasad Rao said that with India aiming to take kabaddi to the Olympics, the incident did not help the cause.

“We want to take kabaddi to the Olympics and in the Asian Games, it was wrong after the match was interrupted for an hour due to one rule and a raid. Not being able to give a decision and changing decisions frequently even after so many reviews did not make things easy,” Prasad Rao said.

“Several people were involved and things went out of control of the match referee, who should have taken control. Players, coaches, and even the federation became a part of it and overtook the matter.

“They should not have done it as it was the job of the TV Umpire and referee. Had there been a bigger issue, the technical director was also present. Whatever happened that day was not right,” he added.

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India’s ups and downs before beating Iran

In the Jakarta Asian Games back in 2018, India lost to Iran. In the Hangzhou Games, Iran made an excellent start by taking a 10-6 lead.

However, India made a stupendous comeback to make it 17-13 at the halfway mark. They also affected two all-outs to put Iran under pressure.

India kept on the good work and made it 24-19 before Iran stormed back to level the scores at 25-25. With 10 minutes left, both teams fought tooth and nail before India triumphed.