Can India ever have a Danny Batth, Dilan Markanday play for Blue Tigers?

When Bangladesh take on India in the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers next March, they will be armed with the X-factor of a English Premier League midfielder. Yes, Hamza Choudhury – who plies his trade for Leicester City – switched his international allegiance to his country of origin and the move was duly approved by Fifa last week.

 This has prompted a section of the Indian football fans to rake up the old question of whether they can ever see the likes of a Danny Batth, Dilan Markanday, Luciano Narsingh or a Harmit Singh, players of Indian origin playing in Europe, wearing the Indian shirt. From Stephen Constantine to the current national head coach Manolo Marquez, most have harped on this to beef up the squad for international assignments – without success.

 The fortunes of the Blue Tigers, current No. 124 in Fifa rankings, have hit the plateau again after a brief high last year. After missing out on making their first-ever third round of 2026 Fifa World Cup Qualifiers (and an automatic berth at the next Asian Cup finals with it), they are back at the drawing board once again. In an era which has an increase in cases of players from country of their origin being allowed to represent them, irrespective of the country they are playing in, India’s citizenship rules forbid a footballer from holding two passports.

 The upshot is that no footballer of Indian origin holding passport of an European country are willing to give it up just for representing India. Countries like neighbours Sri Lanka, Syria, UAE or Malaysia have meanwhile benefitted from the naturalisation rules and the ball is now in the court of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to make a case with the Indian government.

  In August 2023, the AIFF constituted a Task Force under the chairmanship of veteran administrator Samir Thapar for a feasibility study and evaluation of footballers who are in Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) or Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) category – with a deadline of submitting a report by 31 January, 2024. The findings are yet to be made public while Kalyan Choubey, AIFF president who formed the panel, replied to a National Herald query: ‘’This is a decision which involves the citizenship laws of the country. As a NSF (National Sports Federation), we cannot really comment on it. However, we will submit a paper to the government on the global practice being followed in other countries and leave it to them.’’  

  While announcing the Task Force last year, Choubey had said: “We will first form a comprehensive database on the OCI and PIO footballers around the world and then look for the best possible ways to use such players to take Indian football forward.”

It’s a no brainer that the Indian government will, under no circumstances, relax the citizenship rules solely to ease the participation of PIO or OCI footballers – while some feels that it looks more like a short cut solution. ‘’It’s true that we don’t need to tap on such external resources in a sport like cricket, where we can lean on the demographic superiority. However, if a rule is made albeit for a short time span for football, there could be improved results which can raise the profile of the game in the country and have more kids playing the game. Even a country like Indonesia has shown the intent to do it,’’ a football analyst said.

Hamza's credentials

 Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Hamza – who made  seven appearances for England Under-21s, is the first Premier League player to represent the Bengal Tigers, ranked 185th in Fifa’s world rankings. ‘’We are pleased to inform that Hamza Dewan Choudhury has been cleared to play for Bangladesh,’’ said the Bangladesh Football Federation. ‘’This decision was made by the Player’s Status Chamber of the Football Tribunal of Fifa.’’

 Choudhury has made 89 league appearances since his senior Foxes debut in 2017 and was part of the side which won the club’s maiden FA Cup in 2021. He is the only British Asian currently playing in the Premier League - midfielder Arjan Raikhy is also contracted to the Foxes but yet to make his top-flight debut.

Choudhury added: ‘’I’m so happy everything is over the line and I can’t wait to be playing for Bangladesh.’’