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New Delhi: With international football back in India with the Nehru Cup, All India Football Federation’s flagship event hopes are pinned high on the host nation to complete a Nehru Cup hat-trick.

Expecting India to win the title for third consecutive times after 2007 and 2009 is not a big ask, considering the composition of the teams participating in the five nations tournament.

Theoretically India enter the tournament as the lowest ranked team of the tournament following Cameroon (59), Nepal (162) Maldives (161) and Syria (147). But then the fact that all these teams have come with their second string side make India a strong favourite in the tournament.

Odds are stacked up high against India who are fielding their senior squad and expectations are immense and anything less than a win will be disappointing for India.

Cameroon’s real national squad which is called the “Indomitable Lions” are not here and rather the team is filled with players from local club. Even Syria do not have the services of majority of their senior players. The other two teams -- Nepal and Maldives -- also have many under-22 players in the side. The team composition of the visiting nation shows that they are here to test the waters and prepare a team for bigger challenges.

And of the main reasons for the absence of big stars from the tournament is due to the scheduling and also a fact that the tournament is an invitational one, it made the teams opt for second strength side.

Marwan Khouri, the coach of Syria, made it clear that they could give the tournament a miss because of the good relations between both the countries but then since the league tournament started in the country, they could not get their senior players.

“My team is comprised mainly of the junior players. Our senior players were not released by their respective clubs,” Khouri told Indian Sports News.

Similarly even Cameroon could not get their national team players who play in major tournaments due to club commitments.

As far as Maldives and Nepal are concerned they are devoid of most of their senior players due to the inappropriate scheduling. Maldives and Nepal were last minute entrants to the tournament due as Kenya and Philippines pulled out of the tournament.

“We were informed about the tournament very late. Even though we have few senior players who played in the SAFF Championship last year, majority of the players are either under 22 or will be making a debut,” said Istvan Urbanyi, coach of Maldives.

“ I got just three-four practice seasons ahead of the tournament and there was a huge debate going on in the country before we came here as to whether we should go or not.
Maldives like any other SAARC nation do not get enough international matches to play I thought of coming for the tournament,” he added.

“Mukhtar Naseer, country’s top player has retired whereas we are without the services of Ibrahim Fazeel and Tareekh are they are recuperating from injuries. It is more or less the reserve side and we are here to test the waters,” said the Hungarian Istvan.

Nepal even though retained some of their players from the SAFF Championship in 2011, they have a bunch of young players ready to make an impression and graduate into the next level.

“Most of the players were with their clubs when we got the invitation. Even though I have most of the senior team players in the squad I have decided to include eight under 22 boys in the side,’ said Krishna Thapa, Nepal’s coach

By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary

Indian Sports News