Courtesy unreturned: Iran refuse to let India practice at match venue for 2 days, miff Constantine

INDIAN NATIONAL TEAM coach Stephen Constantine was left surprised when he learned that his team wouldn't be allowed to practice at the match venue in Iran for 2 days; a courtesy that the Iran team had been afforded when they visited India.

The Blue Tigers reached Tehran yesterday and are in process of settling down for their World Cup Qualifier against Iran on 24th of March; their toughest match yet in the campaign; and one which they will have to play sans their skipper Sunil Chhetri.

Constantine, understandably, was miffed with the arrangements. He told the official AIFF website,

“When Iran came over to Bengaluru, we allowed them to train at the match venue for two days expecting that you would receive the same treatment. When you extend courtesies you would always like to be repaid, no matter what... but to our surprise we are being denied to train at the match venue (the Azadi Stadium) for two days. It was understandable that we would also be training at the match venue for two days simply because we had allowed the Iranian National Team to train at the venue for two days.”

India, who are ranked 160th in the world, are placed considerably lower than Iran (44th), and could use all the help possible in order to put up a fight against the home team; especially when they are missing some of their main players including Chhetri, Robin Singh and Eugeneson Lyngdoh.

But it seems the Blue Tigers will have to fight it out to acclimatise to the cold weather and the less-than-ideal training conditions ahead of this 'David vs Goliath' encounter. And that's what Constantine seemed eager to get on with,

“The Hotel is a decent one and we look forward to our sessions and the match.”