Robbed off much of its charm in the absence of top African teams, including Cameroon, the football competition of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games kicks-off on Wednesday with hosts India taking on Rwanda in Group 'A' at the Lal Bahadur Shastri stadium in Hyderabad.
In another league match in the same group, Malaysia take on Ghana. But some uncertainty still prevails as the African team is yet to arrive.
According to the latest information, Ghana will arrive on Wednesday morning.
The absence of African giants Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal has weakened the field in this inter-continental meet. The countries that have turned up have brought their junior or second string teams as the senior players were unavailable owing to prior club commitments in Europe.
India, placed in a relatively weaker group, appears to be the only senior team in the fray, though the composition of Ghana and Asian Games gold medallists Iran are yet to be known.
The competition was originally scheduled to start today [Tuesday] but was postponed after Rwanda and Ghana failed to arrive on time.
The weather will also play a crucial role as heavy rain continues to lash the city in bouts under the influence of a depression in the Bay of Bengal.
A sheet of water could be seen on the lush green turf at the LBS stadium this evening and it remains to be seen whether it will be fit for play tomorrow.
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