Jalandhar, in many ways our country’s hockey capital, is living upto its reputation. Second time in five years, the city is hosting the Women Nationals, the first after the run away hit movie Chak De India.
Organizers here are publicity conscious and this time around too the same spirit is omnipresent in the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium, which acquired floodlights recently. Billboards showing the reel girls playing the game, who captured the imagination of the mass, welcome at many places including the one at the main entrance. Just not living on reel, real girls from Subhadra Pradhan to Surinder Kaur bedecks all the banners in the inliers of turf. It’s refreshing look our hockey girls dominate the surroundings, and even in brand stick the logo of Chak De India is printed.
Fresh faces form the teams like Karnataka and Andhra, who were are the receiving end of the day’s proceedings, but so much new faces float in the domestic circuit is something we can all proud of.
Vasanth Reddy, Secretary of Andhra Hockey Association, says the present team is mostly from rural areas, and this idea of talent scouting in rural areas is paying dividends. He says the rural girls possess right physique and that should stand them in good stead in this demanding game.
Delhi, last Nationals’ bronze winners, is disappointed as they went down 1-6 to Mumbai, in which team a reel Chak De girl (Nisha Nair) is playing real – as goalkeeper.
The semifinals line up is drawn. Mumbai will take on Railways while Haryana will clash against Jharkhand. Interestingly, the spirit of Pritam Rani Siwach, who has been playing in the Nationals non stop since 1989, is alive and now with Mamata Kharab their team Haryana is gelling well. For Railways Surinder Kaur looks solid at upfront, and is leading the scorers list at this stage with 9 goals. With Binita Toppo and Suman Bala, there is no worry in the deep defence as well. Mumbai has to go extra mile in upsetting the apple cart of the railways.
Sanjay Kohli, whose company manufactures Rakshak brand of Sticks and sports goods, is happy to continue his association with the game. He was the force behind the organization of Women Nationals last time around in 2002 here in Jalandhar. Except that that time the brand promoted was ‘Save Hockey, now on his own, Rakshak.