India forfeit basketball match

India forfeit the first game in the basketball schedule by not turning up on court at the appropriate time

India’s basketball team failed to turn up for their opening match at the Basketball Indoor Hall at Sport City today, 23 November.

India were not on court by the 12:00 start time and the referee awarded the match to opponents Bahrain, 20-0.

In what was a strange build-up to the match, players for the Kingdom of Bahrain enjoyed an extensive warm-up, where each player was individually introduced by the stadium announcer and took their positions on court prior to tip-off. The referee then blew his whistle to start the match, then immediately blew it again to end the ‘match’ then shook hands with the Bahraini players.

Afterwards, the Bahraini coach, Salman Ramadan stated that " It will be difficult for us tomorrow when we play Macau, China because we concentrated on beating India today. The boys are relaxed now and we will have to work hard to get the team up again.

"Macau, China are maybe not as good as India, but the Chinese are quick and organised. We have to be ready for them because they will give us a tough game."

In what was a bonus to the squad, the forfeited encounter allowed the players to enjoy a thorough training session afterwards as they acclimatised themselves to court conditions.

After the training session player Ahmed Al Mutawa said about the non-encounter " We've been scouting India for a month and were looking forward to playing them, but we'll take the win. It was good to practice in the hall, but we would rather have played the game."

The second match of round 1 of the competition, Mongolia against Uzbekistan, is scheduled to start at 14:15 today, followed by Afghanistan against Hong Kong, China at 16:30 and the local derby, UAE against Kuwait, at 18:45.

India withdraws more teams

India’s Olympic Association (IOA) announced today, 24 November that it has withdrawn more teams from sports in the 15th Asian Games.

In addition to the men’s basketball team which, to general surprise, failed to take the court for their scheduled basketball match against Bahrain yesterday, the IOA today confirmed that the men’s and women’s basketball teams would not contest the Games, together with their sepaktakraw and fencing squads.

Doha’s Asian Games Organising Committee announced this morning that they had been advised by the IOA that the withdrawals, received by fax from Delhi, were “due to last minute unavoidable circumstances.”

In a report published in the Gulf News, Syed Nasir Ali, manager of the Indian football team for the Games denied statements in the press that they wouldn’t be participating, “We have everything set for the trip and we are going to participate in the soccer tournament at the Asian Games.

"The news that we are not going to Qatar is wrong. We should participate and that is why the team is going to Doha."