Asian Cup key to development of India, says Sunil Chhetri

Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri believes that if India has to develop as a soccer-playing nation, regular participation in tournaments like the Asian Cup is pertinent. India could not qualify for the tournament the last time it was held in Australia, but Chhetri hopes he'll be able to lead India to qualify for the next edition of the Cup in 2019.

In the last round of qualifiers this year, India have been placed alongside Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Macau in Group A. Only the top 2 teams from the group will move into the main tournament. The Indian team is currently the second highest-placed team in the group, and Kyrgyzstan the highest-ranked team, is only six places above at 124. And now that the number of participating teams has increased from 16 to 24, this will give India a better chance to qualify, something India has been able to do only thrice before.  

"To be honest, we should be playing at the Asian Cup every time. That's the parameter we need to use to judge if we are doing well or not. We have to keep playing in the Asian Cup which will mean rubbing shoulders with the best in the region. You know the quality you are playing against and then you know how much you have improved," Chhetri told Reuters in an interview.

"As far as our hopes are concerned, I have played enough to understand that you cannot think about the chances yet. The way the rankings work is if you do well in the last six-to-eight months, your ranking can rise to an extent that you can't even imagine. That's why when I face teams in Asia, I don't look too much into rankings. (Qualification) is not going to be easy," he added.

India open their campaign against Myanmar in Yangon on March 28.