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The Indian football team will kick off the SAFF Championship on Wednesday against Pakistan at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. Captain Sunil Chhetri described his experience with Pakistan in a football match – and his description was not far from what he believed to be the case for cricketers on both sides of the border.
“Before the Pakistan match, whenever we met the boys, everything was great. Even when I was in Pakistan once or twice, we played here and there…we were all good and friendly. We are all nice, they speak Punjabi,” Chhetri said in an ISL video. And we speak Punjabi, the moment you blow the whistle, I don’t know what happens.”
“By default, just the feeling of anyone but them. It’s probably ingrained in our upbringing as Indians and I’m sure they’d say the same. The animosity and the fact that we don’t want to lose against them gets to the point.”
The run-up to the game saw its fair share of controversies, mostly due to the delay in securing Pakistan’s access clearance to India. First there was the ‘No Objection Certificate’ that the Pakistan Football Association had been struggling to obtain from its government.
Once this hurdle was passed, the Pakistani team were unable to collect their visas on time in Mauritius from the Indian Embassy, according to PFF. It was only yesterday as the visas were cleared and even then, ESPN India reports that only six of the players managed to board their flights to Bengaluru from Mumbai and the rest of the 14 players would only arrive a few hours before the match. Begins.
India is in Group A of the AFC Championships with Pakistan, Nepal and Kuwait.
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