New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) India's men's handball team has been included in the draw released by the Asian Games organizers even though it was not there in Indian Olympic Association (IOA)'s list of 534 athletes published on June 5.

The draw for the handball has been released with 13 teams divided in four groups. The group comprising India has four teams will other groups have three teams each.

India are in group D alongside Bahrain, Chinese Taipei, India and Iraq.

India's women's team were however cleared by IOA and they are in five-team group comprising South Korea, Kazakhstan, China and North Korea.

The handball teams have been under scanner as they have not fulfilled the IOA criteria of being among the top eight teams in Asia. Their performance has been consistently poor and yet they have been given a preference overlooking a more popular sport like football, where India have improved by leaps and bounds to be ranked 14 among Asian teams.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)