Former Indian striker Bhaichung Bhutia believes that more matches and exposure - including the Indian Super League (ISL) - has helped Blue Tigers to improve and get better over time. Now, the number of matches played by the National Team is three or four times the number we played in the initial stages," Bhutia told AIFF TV. Bhaichung, who was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1998 and the Padma Shri in 2008, also stressed how important it is to keep producing quality players for the national team and continue working at the grassroots level of the game. "For the national team, we need to keep producing good quality players. We do have good players at the moment but if we want to compete with the best in Asia, we need to keep producing bigger and better players.

Source: dna August 23, 2020 12:11 UTC