Indian team led by the hugely popular Mamta Kharab has left India in the evening of Sunday,

the 27th August, for Hong Kong where the Asia Cup for women will commence a week from now.

In 2004, India defeated Japan via golden goal to lift the Cup for the first time and thus

made it to the Madrid World Cup.

Though the World Cup slot is not at stake, which will be so in 2009 edition, the competition

comes in handy for the competition starved teams in Asia.

Despite huge talk of growth, both men and women hockey had been stagnated in terms of

countries taking the sport seriously. Very sadly, only four entries could be made for the

2002 Asian Games women’s category and hardly the men attracts more than 6,7 teams.

Coach Hardayal SIngh Bhangu, who took the girls to Commonwealth Games gold, has come in in

place of M.K.Kaushik, whose exit from the scene is shrouded in mystery.

IWHF claims the Haryana govt, the employer of Kaushik, is not granting him leave. However, the querries point to the fact that Kaushik himself is not much enthused to train due to various factors. Chief among them is IWHF’s unwillingness to keep the same set of officials, manager and supporting staff, and taking many vital decisions without active consultation with him. Whatever, the IWHF brought a Dutchman for a short stint, who is believed to have expressed inability to continue the job on regular basis due to prior commitment.

So, on ad-hoc basis, Bhangu takes the team to Hong Kong. As-hocism, a hitherto a companian of men’s hockey has certainly penetrated into women’s domain too.

On the team’s prospects,Bhangu is sure of semifinals where it mostly likely to meet Japan or Korea. China is the strong team in India’s pool.

There are four new faces in the team, whose forwardline Jasjeet Kaur, Surinder Kaur, Ritu Rani, all from Shahbad in Haryana, Saba Anjum and captain Mamta seems very strong. Asunta Lakra is a tested material at the centre-half, so also Subhadra Pradhan at the defence. Suman Bala is shaping up though yet to get her real form she is known for in the defence. Marita Tirkey is the sure bet for goalkeeping.

Interstingly, the team is in a buouant mood, reason being the huge success of Chak de. A few hours before they landed in Delhi, the IWHF received the title song disks of Chak de cinema which the sensitive film makers Yash Raj films sent for the team as a good will gesture.

It seems chake de title song will hencforth be the signature song of the women team, unofficially of course. The girls are unanimous they would be singing Chake de song before the match, leaving out the routine shrill stuff, bharat mata ki jai.

Will the girls turn in a good performance and join the nation basking in the glory of chak de success, is what remains to be seen.

Very unfortunately, the Asian Hockey Federation, which hardly conducts any major tournament, granted both men and women Asia Cups to be held almost simultaneously in two different countries. Not only that, the AHF meetings are scheduled to be held in Chennai during the men’s competition. Certainly, a short shrift to ladies by their own AHF!!

This we will analyse and discuss in the next article from Chennai.