19th Asian Games Men's Kabaddi Final: India vs Iran Controversy Explained
The Men's Kabaddi Final at the 19th Asian Games which took place earlier today at the XSG Sports Centre witnessed a very competitive but Technically malfunctioned game between 2 powerhouses India and Iran.
Before the Finale, the match promised to be one of the best ever and without a doubt it did. Iran started the match with confidence and gave India their toughest challenge yet in the continental games.
Gholamreza Mazandaran's side took the lead and maintained it until they reached the 12-point mark. Back to back successful raids by Naveen Kumar, Pawan Sehrawat along with a defensive point by Nitesh Kumar, India blew away Iran's and created a 4-point lead before the 1st-half came to an end.
In the 2nd-half, India carried the same momentum with Naveen, Pawan and Aslam playing their parts. But soon after, Iran crawled their way back to equal the scoring specifically through the push provided by Mohammadreza Chiyaneh.
The score was 28-28 with less than 3 minutes to go and thats when Pawan Sehrawat went for a Raid. He jogs his way in, shuffles right to left and attempts a toe touch with his right foot.
In that process, the last defender placed one of his foot outside of the lobby while Sehrawat tried to run away like a Cheetah towards his side of the mat. In that process, he lured other defenders to follow him and by mistake Pawan ran off the lobby and got self out.
His next reaction was that there was No contact as he went out and quickly appealed the same. Irani defenders on the other hand started celebrating in their own as they thought, Iran now have the lead.
And that was the start of a few minutes of pause which lasted for at least 30-35 minutes. But what took them so long?
The referees and their unsure decision was the reason why that referral break stretched to become a temporary pause. The confusion was about a new rule and the old rule of Kabaddi regarding players crossing the lobby.
The Old Rule: If a raider is pursued by defenders when the former gets out to the lobby during a Raid without any contact, on his own then those defenders would be the ones to exit the mat not the raider.
The New Rule: This rule was tweaked and the defenders received the advantage of not losing their points even after crossing parts of the lobby in pursuit of the raider.
The Referee awarded a point each to Iran and India going by the new rule before a Review by India saw the referee reverse the decision to India's favor by 3-1. Confusion was all over the face of the referee who again changed the decision to 1-1 but the Indian camp appealed once again and the review went for another round. It took senior officials from AKFI to interfere and sort the matter.
When it looked like the decision was final to 3:1, all the Iran players sat down in the mat to protest. It took another 10 minutes to fix it but the final decision went towards India's favor before Naveen Kumar scored the winning point.
India celebrated and Iran mourned but the referees failed to conduct a smooth procedure. The question that arises from this is that the Referees needed a bit more knowledge and exposure.
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