Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri along with veteran defender Sandesh Jhingan and goalie Gurpreet Singh Sandhu’s name is missing from the list that India sent for the upcoming Asian Games as per reports from the Times of India. While the tournament has regulations to include U23 players, 3 players can be included who are over the age limit.
For the women’s team, there are no such age limitations. It was decided that accompanying the U-23 squad, India’s top 3 experienced players will accompany them. And as a result, the likes of Chhetri, Jhingan, and Sandhu were included in the list. But now as per reports, the names of these three players have not been included in the list that was sent by the Indian Government.
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The cut-off date to send the player list was on 15th July. Since the senior team players initially had doubts to play in the Asian Games and thus subsequently their names were not present in the list sent to the Asiads. AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey has requested the organizers to give the accreditation to the three players on the basis of a special case.
“When we (AIFF’s coaches, technical officials and support staff members and federation officials) had made a presentation to the sports ministry’s officials requesting for the football teams’ (men and women) clearance for the Asiad, we didn’t realise that their names (Chhetri, Sandhu and Jhingan) were not in the original list of athletes sent to the organisers,” Kalyan Chaubey told The Times of India.
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“When I realised this (omission), being the head of the organisation (AIFF), I took up the matter personally to ensure that their names were added so that they could get the accreditation. Their names have been sent to the organisers. The people concerned who made the presentation to the ministry should have known about this. As the federation president, I needed to interfere,” he added.
Indian men’s football team for Asian Games: Anwar Ali, Gurmeet, Lalengmawia, Narender, Rahim Ali, Lalnuntluanga Bawitlung, Rohit Danu, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, Aniket Anil Jadhav, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Akash Mishra, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Thoiba Singh Moirangthem, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Roshan Singh Naorem, Siva Sakthi Narayanan, Asish Rai, Vikram Pratap Singh, Deepak Tangri, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Suresh Singh Wangjam.
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