Jalandhar : Identifying the qualifiers from a maze of matches at five venues is a daunting task. But Kukoo Walia, the Tournament Director for the National hockey championship, has successfully completed the task without a major hitch. He needs a pat on the back for courageously summoning his experience and expertise as player, coach and umpire to complete a difficult and unrewarding task.

As the super league for the 12 qualifiers is all set to fall in place on Sunday, there is optimism that at last the competition for the Rangaswamy Cup, donated by The Hindu in 1951, will be back on board without a break from now on.

It is true that the competition has been robbed of glamour in the light of the directive of the Indian Hockey Federation prohibiting the Asian Games campers from participating. This, quite predictably, has triggered a debate, especially among the institutional teams, which have employed many of them in prestigious positions in their units.

Wrong timing

Maybe, the timing of the tournament is wrong. Coming as the competition does amid heavy schedule, there cannot but be cause for some grumbling. But the IHF perforce had to finish the event before the year to keep a semblance of continuity. The year so far has been hectic, what with events like the Commonwealth Games, World Cup and Azlan Shah taking a heavy toll in the preparations. Looking back at the competition so far, it is clear how unglamorous the event has been. The humiliation suffered by the minnows proved an embarrassment even for the winners. There, is however, a mood of buoyancy here over the next stage. Everyone believes that the competition will be tougher and interesting despite the absence of the Asiad probables. Kukoo Walia is confident that the super league will throw up some nail-biting contests, since it involves the top guns. The groupings for the super league were announced after placing the institutional outfits that qualified from the Delhi leg of the championship in the four pools.

The 12 teams are divided into four pools of three each, with the winner of each pool making the semifinals. The league phase will end on October 30. After a day's rest, the semifinals will be played on November 2, and the final the next day.

Doordarshan is scheduled to telecast live both the penultimate round and final matches live.

The Pools: A: Indian Airlines, Punjab, Namdhari XI; B: Railways, Tamil Nadu, Indian Oil; C: Mumbai, Delhi, Air-India; D: Chandigarh, Services and Punjab and Sind Bank.

Saturday's matches: Punjab and Sind Bank v Services (11 a.m.); Indian Oil v Tamil Nadu (1 p.m.); Air-India v Mumbai (3 p.m.).

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail