The Hindu : Railways starts firm favourites

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Railways starts firm favourites
By Kirti Patil

JALANDHAR, MARCH 17. As always, the dice is heavily loaded in favour of Railways, the champion of earlier 17 editions.

But for the closely-knit Haryana and a virtual `rest of Railways' appearing as Mumbai, no other team has enough strength or the flair to best the Railways, in the women's National hockey championship.

Whatever the critics might have to say, the fare at the National championship lacks character as all the outstanding players get bunched together in Railways. This unfair distribution, make most of the contests one-sided.

On the contrary, in the National Games, Railways' players were spread over into the different teams. No surprise then, that in the 2001 Punjab National Games, intense competition was witnessed - Haryana duly won the title beating strong a Maharashtra.

The 51st edition of the women's Nationals, which gets underway at the Olympian Surjit Stadium in Burlton Park on Monday, is taking place after a gap of one year.

The Indian Women's Hockey Federation (IWHF) struggled in the year 2001 to find a sponsor. Now there is a hint of relief among the players and patrons of the women's hockey.

As the women's hockey returns to Punjab, which has bred players and the sport like no other land, two sponsors joined the organisers, the Punjab Women's Hockey Association. Coca Cola and Save Hockey, an association of former players, formed to promote and save the women's game, have pooled in funds for conduct of the Nationals.

In such a scenario, 13 teams get together here to prove their worth. Besides the defending champion Railways and runner-up of the last Nationals, Haryana, all other teams qualified through six zonal tournaments. From the zonals, held at Jalandhar, Lucknow, Bangalore, Patna, Mumbai and Jabalpur, earlier this year, top two teams made it to the tournament proper.

Railways, almost the Indian team to the last player, is here in full strength so does Haryana, Mumbai and Punjab.

But for the playmaker Pritam Rani Siwach, playing for the Railways, Haryana was as much the same combination, which won the National Games gold medal. As for Punjab, it has lost strikers Jyoti Sunita Kullu and Manjinder Kaur, and Amandeep Kaur, to the Railways.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh, which qualified alongside Delhi from North's region-II zonal, withdrew from the contest. The UP Hockey Association, in a fax to the organisers, explained its inability to form the team due to ongoing college examinations.

On the eve of the championship, five teams - Railways, Jharkhand, Orissa, Manipur and the host - went through the practice sessions. Other teams were expected to arrive either late in the evening or early on Monday.

The 50th edition was held in 2000 January, in Jabalpur, on grass surface. In the age when astro-turf was an accepted surface, if not a necessity, the Jabalpur Nationals had posed `grassy problems' for even the Railways.

The groupings: Pool A: Railways, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka; Pool B: Punjab, Delhi, Manipur; Pool C: Mumbai, Orissa, Tamil Nadu; Pool D: Haryana, Air India, Madhya Pradesh.

Monday's fixture: Jharkhand v Karnataka and Railways v Chandigarh.

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