India has qualified for the AFL Asia Cup Semi Finals! A statement that might have been hard to believe for many days out from India’s participation at the inaugural Asia Cup of the sport, wasn’t that surprising in fact for the team management. Yes team India prepared quietly, organised multiple nationals camps with the best players from 11 states of India to select the final 15 touring Vietnam and focused on the basics of skills, discipline and team bonding and were determined to progress India’s international performance record.

Pitted against Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and Indonesia in Pool A, India qualified for the semi finals after a historic performance in the sport, before losing out to Japan, who went on to win the inaugural AFL Asia Cup 2024.

Indian Tigers (team India’s name at the AFL Asia Cup) kick started their AFL Asia Cup 2024 journey with a historic win after 13 long years over the hosts Vietnam in Round 1. After a relatively close competition through the first 3 quarters on the game, India took their historic victory away from Vietnam by a big margin in the last quarter, winning the game 8-13-61 to 3-4-22. While Team India veteran Asheet Kujur kicked 3 goals, Soyeb Ali and Midlaj A scored 2 goals each and Wilson Nadar scoring 1. However, the striking figures noticeable on the scorecard were that 13 behinds scored, something that Head Coach Sudhasil Mitra reminded the boys post-game amidst celebrations.

Watch the replay of India’s historic international victory after 13 years here.

The jubilant Indian Tigers went on to face their arch rivals China in Round 2 on the same day. For those unaware, India played its first ever international game against China in 2008 and since then had faced them multiple times without success. Although majority of the India vs China games in history had been close contests with China winning one of the games by a 1 goal, India had never been able to beet them. So the Tigers went into the game conscious of the track record but with a positive attacking strategy devised by Sudhasil Mitra and his coaching team of Harris Jamal and Jasim Akhtar, who are all former Team India players who have faced the Chinese team in the past. The result of the game was beyond imaginable for anyone, with India thrashing China 17-8-110 to 0-3-3 and winning the game by 107 points, the biggest margin victory at the Asia Cup 2024. Captain Mahesh Tirkey led from the front along with Midlaj A kicking 4 goals each. Soyeb Ali scored goals on this occasion with Asheet Kujur and Dicosta David scoring 2 goals each and Sk Rakesh and Prakash Nayak scoring 1 goal each.

Watch the replay of India’s dominating performance against China here.

Day 2 saw India lock horns against Hong Kong – China in Round 3, which was a really close contest with India going down 6-11-47 to 9-4-58 after fantastic performance all round by the team and a last quarter push to try and win the game. Asheet Kujur scored 3 goals against Hong Kong, while Wilson Nadar, Mahesh Bhadekar and Sk Rakesh scored 1 goal each. Watch India Vs Hong Kong match replay here.

Round 4 on the same day saw India play another close contest against a strong Indonesian side and play their best game against the country, going down by only 8 points 7-11-53 to 9-7-61. Number of behinds scored in both games on Day 2 costing the Tigers heavily. Soyeb Ali and Sk Rakesh scored 2 goals each against Indonesia while Wilson Nadar, Rohan Hindalekar and Manish Hemrom scored a goal each.

However, the good news at the end of Day 2 was that India finished second in Pool A, which meant a further historic moment for India in the sport of Australian Rules football, to make it past the league stage at any international competition ever!

At the semi finals, the team expected the competition to be very tough against Japan who have been the best performing Asian team in past AFL International Cups and had finished on top of the ladder in Pool B. However, the Tigers started really well against the Samurais, with a score of 4-0-24 to 1-4-10 at the end of first quarter and going into half time only 4 points behind after a last second goal by the Japanese. The Japanese Samurai came back stronger in the last 2 quarters and proved their mettle with endurance and skills and took the game away from the Indian Tigers eventually, defeating them 12-10-82 to 7-3-45. Sk Rakesh and Soyeb Ali scored 2 goals each for India while Rohan Hindalekar, Dicosta David and Oman Manki scored one goal each for their country’s first ever appearance in the finals of an international Australian Football tournament.

Watch the India Vs Japan AFL Asia Cup game replay here.

ARFAI are grateful to the Australian Football League (AFL), who are also the international governing body of the sport for organising the first ever Asia Cup of the sport and also the local hosts, the Vietnam Swans team for all their support to organise an amazing experience for Team India. Read more about the AFL Asia Cup here.

Team India would like to support all its supporters and supporters who helped make this journey successful. We are grateful to Centurion University of Technology and Management and Thamarrurr Youth Indigenous Corporation for their ongoing support for development of Australian Rules Football in India. We are also grateful to Hop On Kangaroos and the Richmond Football Club for their sponsorship and Boots For All for their lovely donation of valuable off-field gear for the team. Additionally, we are absolutely grateful to everyone who contributed to the online fundraiser to support the costs for Team India to travel to the Asia Cup.

Cherry on the cake, 2 of India’s best players got selected in the All Star Asian team, with Soyeb Ali and Prakash Nayak getting selected very deservingly.

We are still quite short of the expenses for the tournament and if you would like to extend a small support or share the word with someone that might be able and willing to support, please find the online fundraiser link here – https://gofund.me/b293340f