Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of India national football team hat-tricks

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was nomination withdrawn (WP:SKCRIT #1) - see comment below. (non-admin closure) Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:40, 19 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

List of India national football team hat-tricks[edit]

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WP:SALAT, list too specific: I strongly doubt the topic of "hat-tricks by the Indian national football team" is notable enough in itself that a list is warranted. All entries are referenced by that does not make an OK list topic. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 07:57, 18 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to state why such a list on Indian Football is necessary, especially, now. From 1950 to early 1970s, India was considered a powerhouse of Asian Football. This is evident from match results provided by FIFA website that those days India was at par with nations like South Korea, Japan, UAE or even Australia. But after that football lost it's popularity in India and Cricket emerged as the most popular sport. Gradually, football in India lost the status and importance which it had enjoyed before. This reflected in the performance also as India turned into one of the weakest football nations in the world fan-following dwindled. But things started to change for better with the turn of the century, most precisely in the last 10 years Indian Football has turned around. Qualifying in the AFC Asian Cup twice in last 10 years is testimony that. Also, India's FIFA rank has jumped from 173 to 97 in last 2 years. Last year India successfully hosted the U-17 World Cup. These events have generated a renewed interest in Indian Football among the masses, especially, the young generation. That is the reason that now there is a concerted effort being made by FIFA, AIFF and the Sports Ministry of India to popularize football in this part of the world.

Now, in India most of the younger generation seeks information from digital media; however, very little is available on India's glorious past in digital format as most of the writings were in print media. Whatever little is available in digital format is so much scattered across various websites that someone who wants to enhance his/her knowledge about Indian football would feel disappointed. So bringing such information under one umbrella so that it is easily available to the interested audience is one objective which wikipedia has successfully done over the last decade. There are various articles on Indian football and stalwarts of Indian football, both past and present, are available in Wikipedia. Now, in the game of football, number of goals and hat-tricks has always been considered an important yardstick, besides many others, to judge a team's success, strength and prowess. Hence, there is always an interest among football's followers to know about their team's heroes from statistics like the highest goal scorers or hat-trick scorers and such information creates a fan-following for that footballer which in turn popularizes the game because stars can bring in the crowds. For instance, today's generation wouldn't know that how strong India once was that they could beat Australia in 1956 Olympics and also one Indian player scored a hat-trick against them in that match. They would not know that a player like Sunil Chhetri has scored so many hat-tricks against quality opposition besides scoring 64 international goals. Such articles will create an awareness and interest among the people which would help popularizing the game in this part of the world. That is why lists of hat-tricks not only merges the accomplishments of both past and present to feed the growing interest in Indian Football but also provides single point of information for any researcher or an sports journalist because while compiling the list thorough research has been done to find reliable sources to buttress the data. Besides, such a list helps educating to the football enthusiasts of the rest of the world about India's glorious past and growing influence. These sources are articles from very reputed newspapers of India and Singapore which have a strong subscriber-base and have been in circulation for more that 70 years.

There can be a counter-argument that since many other articles on Indian Football in wikipedia might contain such information what is the point of having a dedicated list. But, let me tell you, such information is available only in parts and that too in isolation. For instance, even one month back I didn't know the names like Marto Gracias or Magan Singh Rajvi. But while editing other articles in Wikipedia, I was doing some research and stumbled upon these names who have served Indian Football with distinction including scoring hat-tricks in important international tournaments. Sadly, such heroes have lost their place in public memory. Secondly, any avid follower looking for hat-trick scorers of Indian Football would be more interested finding the names and matches about hat-tricks if they are listed at one place because such a reader will not have enough time to glean through every article on Indian Football.

Also such articles can serve to rectify mistakes in other wikipedia articles. For instance, while creating the article I found a similar list of Philippines national football team List of Philippines national football team hat-tricks and they have failed to include Subhash Bhowmick in their section Hat-tricks conceded by the Philippines. I could immediately point the page creator to my list and the reference from The Straits Times to buttress my claim. He had no doubt in my claim because the newspaper The Straits Times holds a good reputation in his country too.

Hence I feel such a list should not be deleted because it can go a long way to inspire and popularize the game in India. Regards DipanjanDatta1974 (talk) 17:19, 18 July 2018 (UTC)DipanjanDatta1974[reply]

@DipanjanDatta1974: Please make a policy-based argument. What you just said (in a lot of words) is an argument for why football should be promoted in India, not why we should keep a list about hat-tricks in Wikipedia. Wikipedia has no interest in promoting football or India. See WP:ILIKEIT. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 09:11, 19 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I will summarize the points why I feel the article should not be deleted:

1) In the game of football, hat-tricks are considered as an important statistics and a measure of accomplishment as they are rare and all football enthusiasts are interested in knowing about it.

2) India is an emerging football nation and after it's qualification in the upcoming 2019 AFC Asian Cup, more and more people want to know the facts, statistics and history of Indian Football. This list provides a glimpse of the past as well as the present strength.

3) No website including wikipedia provides such a well-compiled list about Indian hat-trick scorers backed by references from the most reliable sources available.

4) Within 3 days of creating the list, page views of more than 200 is a testimony to that fact there are lot of viewers who are interested in such a list.

5) Such a list can serve as a reference point for researchers and new articles. A similar list on Philippines national football team hat-tricks List of Philippines national football team hat-tricks was able rectify an obvious omission in their list only after viewing the List of India national football team hat-tricks.

6) The reference materials used to compile the list are articles from very reputed newspapers of India and Singapore which have a strong subscriber-base and have been in circulation for more that 70 years. Other references include articles from FIFA and AIFF.

Regards DipanjanDatta1974 (talk) 09:52, 19 July 2018 (UTC)DipanjanDatta1974[reply]

Withdrawing nomination - not because I am convinced by the points above (I am not) but because in light of Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_Japan_national_football_team_hat-tricks_(2nd_nomination) WikiProject Football seems to think hat-tricks lists are OK, and I will defer to their judgement. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:37, 19 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.