Senior Nationals at Pune and Jalandhar?

Hockey India has informed its State Hockey Association units of it staging of both Junior and Senior National Championships for men and women early next year.

These Nationals are proposed to be held in advance of forthcoming Nationals Games (Ranchi) so that teams thereto could be selected. Top 8 or ten teams of the National Championship normally make it to the Nationals Games hockey.

National Games in Ranchi will commence on 12th February.

Senior Men’s National is proposed to be held at Pune, where recently another faction of administrators held the Junior Nationals. Now again another Junior Men’s National will be held in Rohtak (Haryana) in January, while the Senior Nationals in Pune will be staged between January 24 and 2nd February.

Senior Women’s Nationals will be held in Feb at Jalandhar.

This year Madhya Pradesh Government organized the Nationals at Bhopal with the support of Indian Hockey Federation headed by KPS Gill. Bombay won the Cup. The organizers could get the Rangasamy Cup from the defending champions Punjab and Sind Bank and it was awarded to Mumbai.

Now, it remains to be seen which Cup will Hockey India award to its own brand of Nationals’ winner in the light of the above stated fact.

All institutions such as Services, Railways including PSB did not take part in the Bhopal event.

It is also gathered Rohtak is not having a synthetic turf, therefore, the junior Nationals will all likelihood be held on natural grass.

Strictly speaking genuine Nationals were not held since 2006. Men’s Senior Nationals was held in three centres, with the final leg at Jalandhar. Similarly, women’s nationals final leg was also held in Jalandhar, but it had five zonal competitions preceding it.

Hockey India announced hosting of Nationals in the past once but it did not. The fact remains that despite coming to the hockey chairs in May 2008, it could not stage any age category Nationals till date.