Huge routs expose lack of depth in Nationals

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, may 24

The ongoing sub-junior and junior National Hockey Championships in New Delhi and Ranchi are throwing up startling results. A sizeable majority of the matches in the men’s and women’s category end up being ridiculously one-sided. The margin of victory in some matches verges toward outrageous. For instance, Hockey Punjab beat Hockey Chhattisgarh 31-0 in a sub-junior men’s A Division match, meaning a goal was scored every two minutes in the 60-min contest.

Earlier this month, in the women’s junior National Championship in Rajnandgaon, 16 teams (divided into four pools) played 36 matches, and 17 (47.22%) matches saw one team dominating completely. In 18 matches, the losing team failed to score even a single goal. Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan failed to score a single goal in the tournament. The two semifinals and the final match were also heavily one-sided.

In the women’s sub-junior category B Division in Ranchi, 17 teams (divided into four pools) played 28 matches, and 18 matches (64.28%) were mis-matches.

In the men’s junior National Championship in Mysore, 16 teams (divided into four pools) played 28 matches, and 11 (39.28%) matches were completely one-sided. In the sub-junior men’s Nationals in New Delhi, 16 teams (divided into four pools) played 28 matches till now, and 17 (60.71%) were a drab affair.

Clearly, the age group championships organised by Hockey India (HI) have failed to provide any thrilling action.

Even coaches admit that there are just eight to ten teams that are competitive, the rest just make up numbers in the premier hockey championship of the country. A lot of players who represent a sub-junior (under-14) team are the same who play in the junior (under-19) category. Similarly, a large number of junior category players also play in the senior category. In a nutshell, there is a dearth of good players and most of the teams lack depth.

Former India coach Rajinder Singh minces no words in criticising Hockey India’s organisational skills. “You can not botch up a national championships in a better way,” he says. “Look at the pooling system… A team that comes third one year is relegated into the B Division next year. The preparation for the championships begins when most of the children in the country are facing final examinations. 17 yr-old kids are playing in the sub-junior category (U-14). The organisers are making sure that hockey gets ruined in India.”

Admitting that there are serious flaws in the championship, a senior Hockey India official said, “It would make sense if we follow the zonal system, so only the best teams would progress further. The umpiring standard will also rise. You cannot expect an umpire to be on the ball if 30 goals are being scored in a match.”

A veteran Punjab-based coach said, “HI seriously needs to change the timing of the tournaments… This is off-season and you cannot expect players to be in top form. Otherwise the standard of hockey will go down further.”

Hockey India continues to be a mute spectator to the alarming situation.

Beat it

Sub-junior (Women B Division)

Chandigarh bt J&K 27-0

Patiala bt Puducherry 19-0

Mizoram bt Vidarbha 16-0

Sub-junior (Men A Division) 

Punjab bt Chhattisgarh 31-0

Gangpur bt Tamil Nadu 17-0

Odisha bt SAI 9-0

Junior (Women A Division)

Haryana bt Kerala 20-0

Bhopal bt Rajasthan 16-0

Punjab bt Chhattisgarh 15-0

Junior (Men A Division)

Punjab bt Maharashtra 15-0

Jharkhand bt Chhattisgarh 12-3

Jharkhand bt SAI 10-2