DOHA, Qatar (AP): India's star striker Sunil Chhetri was star struck when he arrived in Qatar for the Asian Cup.
It wasn't the array of talented players at the tournament, nor the glistening skyscrapers across Doha that caught his gaze but the country's brand new training facilities and football stadiums.
The 26-year-old, who plays for Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer, envied the fact a country with a population of 1.6 million could provide so much for its team while India, the world's second most populous country, had to send its team abroad to Dubai and Portugal for pre-tournament training.
"You talk about a country which is (1.2) billion, a big country and we don't have a single training field," Chhetri said. "Just to train, we have to go abroad six months, five months four months. It is sad.
"When you come to Qatar, it is a small country it has a thousand fields better than anything in our country. It is frustrating but that is the way it is."
India is a charity case of sorts at Asia's premiere tournament, having qualified via the second-tier Challenge Cup where it beat fellow football minnows Tajikistan. It came in as the worst ranked team in the tournament by far - a lowly 144th in the FIFA world rankings - and has been beaten badly losing all of its matches by a combined score of 13-3.
Still, coach Bob Houghton and his players say competing against the likes of Australia, South Korea and Japan will give the team much-needed international experience and more importantly send a stark message to officials back home about how much work remains to be done.
"It's a big profile for us to be here," said Houghton, an Englishman who has coached throughout Asian during his 31-year career.
"We just hope we can walk away with our heads held high and that would be good for game. Even if we find this tournament is a level too high for us, at least it makes it clear to people in India what we need to do to move on."
Bhaichung Bhutia, the most famous footballer in India who briefly appeared in its last match, said by playing in the Asian Cup "the world has come to know India plays football."
"Whenever I go abroad to Europe or anywhere, everybody is like 'Does India play football?' That is the question I get everywhere." said Bhutia, who has played 113 international matches and scored 50 goals for the national side. "We have a good chance and have room for improvement.
With this experience, hopefully we can get better."
India came into this tournament already suffering its share of troubles on and off the pitch. The striker Bhutia was injured and unavailable until its final match and Chhetri is just returning from several weeks out because of an ankle injury.
Then just before its opening match with Australia, it learned that striker Sushil Kumar Singh has been suspended for two matches by the AFC Disciplinary Committee for elbowing an opponent during a 2010 AFC Challenge Cup match against North Korea. He missed the team's first two matches in the tournament.
But for fans of Indian football, the troubles goes well beyond a few injured and suspended players.
They blame decades of neglect for allowing India - where the game was first played in Asia in 1854 and which won the Asian Games gold medal 1951 and reached the semifinals at the 1956 Olympics - to become a laughing stock of Asia.
Fans like Atishay Agarwal, the editor of a soon-to-be launched football magazine The Beautiful Game, recall a golden era when the team qualified for the 1950 World Cup but pulled out because it wanted to play barefoot. The team, he said, also registered wins over the likes of France and Hungary during that time.
"India was on par with other Asian giants at the time, but over the years, football in our country stagnated for various reasons, and perhaps moved backwards," Agarwal said.
"There are many reasons, to be honest," he said. "Poor administration, lack of vision, and even the growing popularity of cricket.
The latter is probably the most common excuse used by people running football over here. It is true that since the 1970s cricket has captured the imagination of the country, but that shouldn't come in the way of any other sport doing well."
Houghton and others said the lack of funding and support is best seen in the rundown football facilities that are commonplace in India. Comparing the country to the other Asian giant China where he also coached the national side, Houghton said he was stunned at the contrast.
"The big difference between China and India is one of infrastructure," Houghton said, adding that India only has one stadium that could host a World Cup match.
"China has wonderful facilities," he said. "Where I stayed in Shanghai, the facilities there would be greater than in all of India. If you don't have infrastructure, don't have development programs and don't have coaches, you won't make that step forward. This is step up for us but if you want to continue to move forward and get to Asian cup finals, you need to do something about domestic program back home."
Asked if India could be ready to host the 2019 Asian Cup, Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed bin Hammam told the Press Trust of India that much work was needed for its bid to pass muster.
"India will have to be ready and naturally infrastructure will have to be developed in a way that it meets today's international football standards," Bin Hammam said.
"Lot of things need to be done. Football is not played in isolation," he said. "Clubs in Asia have become very professional and we know these things are not in India.
These are no secrets."
Still, Bin Hammam and FIFA President Sepp Blatter also see potential in India despite its problems. Attracted by the marketing potential that comes with its booming economy, the footballing world is starting to cast its eye toward India with the hope that it can win over its 1.2 billion people - including a growing middle class.
"If we have to identify new territories where football can be a better part, definitely it is subcontinent of India," Blatter told reporters in Doha. "This is a real market, a double market not only for football but the economic market because India is a power."
Last month, the All India Football Federation signed a $150 million deal, 15-year rights deal with IMG Worldwide and Reliance Industries in which they will "radically restructure, overhaul, improve, popularize and promote the game of football throughout India, from the grassroots to the professional level."
"It is the second most popular sport in the country with a massive and passionate fan following," Ted Forstmann, chairman and chief executive of IMG Worldwide, said in a statement after the deal was signed.
"The excitement and exuberance that was evident in the streets of the major cities in India during this year's World Cup, as well as the estimated 110 million Indian television viewers of the games, is a good indication of potential for future success ... In a country with a population of 1.2 billion people and incredibly talented athletes, it's a realistic goal that India aims for a future World Cup berth."
But as the team heads home from its dismal Asian Cup run, a World Cup appearance was the last thing on the minds of most fans.
They said they would just be happy to see a team that can be competitive against Asian neighbors.
"The team did well in patches, but in the overall scenario, it seemed as if we did not belong at the stage," said Sampath Sundaram, a football fan from New Delhi who watched several of the games. "Conceding easy goals at the international level will not take the team anywhere. I wonder whether there is any fresh talent coming up, because we keep hearing the same names again and again."
