No hero's welcome for Kabaddi team

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Doha: This is the one sport where India can count on a gold medal even if all else falls apart. The kabaddi team did it for a fifth straight Asian Games, overcoming arch-rivals Pakistan in the final.

But even as the country revels in the golden glory, the players know they will be forgotten just as soon as their chants die out.

Ever since the game was introduced at the Beijing Games in 1990, the gold has been a certainty. And even as India played against Pakistan in the finals, the result was never in doubt. In the end the scoreline read 35-22.

Dinesh Kumar, the captain of the Indian kabaddi team, said: "Just like how India cheers in a cricket match between India and Pakistan, the crowd cheered us here. We played very well today. We did commit a few errors but our defence and offence was solid in the game."

Although teams like Bangladesh and Japan have shown an improvement in standards, India have managed to keep their nose ahead through it all. Although this was a far from perfect performance, the captain was all praise for the way his team played.

"The team played very well. All 12 players including those who sat out of the game are good," Dinesh added.

Ironically, the sport will now fade once again from public memory. And pretty quickly, after all this medal is always assured, the golden boys soon will be back, unrecognised on the streets of a thankless sporting nation.