Jallandhar: Punjab and Sind Bank, led by lanky Devinder Pal Singh, was successful in retaining the 62nd National Championship which concluded here at the Olympian Surjit Memorial Government Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar, Punjab. The city based institutional team rather easily defeated emerging power Delhi by three goals to one.
Earlier, Indian Oil Corporation outplayed rather lucklustre Namdharis to post an impressive 7-2 win to win the bronze. The Namdharis team played a wonderful Super League, handing out outright defeats to both Punjab and Indian Airlines, but in the knock out phase its players seemed to have run out of energy and easily gave in. However, the team’s progress is a notice for the so-callled strong teams that their pre-eminent position is no longer guaranteed if they continue to be lethargic and does not take competitions seriously.
Delhi had made its own history by reaching the finals in sixty years, but its much feared forwardline where captain Bikas Toppo and Praveen Kumar were the livewires, could not click against much against clinical defensive system displayed by the Bankmen and more alert forwarline up, where Parminder Singh was fearsome, with excellent promptings from midfield where brothers Mandeep Singh and Sandeep were joined in by time tested right half Baljit Singh Saini.
Delhi’s lone goal came too late in the proceedings that it could not pull up the team to make up the arrears, a brace of goals they conceded early in the first half.
Plain-speaking Rajinder Singh Jr., the winning team’s coach was happy, but at the same time expressed the view that unless the authorities change their attitude it is practically not possible to translate these victories into a national strength. What he meant was that even selectors came too late for the tournament and the President and Secretary who were there for a couple of days were missing on the final day, and also there is no synergy between domestic and national talents.