Has Time Come to Rejig the Format of Senior Men Nationals?

The Senior Men Hockey Nationals are a great platform not just for teams across the length and breadth of the country to showcase where they stand at the domestic level, but also an opportunity for the organisers – Hockey India – to take stock of the talent pool available in the country. But it is ‘far from a pleasing sight’ to come across teams hammering opposition by a margin 43-0.

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The case in question is the pool C tie between hosts Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu and Hockey Andaman & Nicobar. The manner in which the Tamil Nadu outfit rode roughshod over Hockey Andaman & Nicobar 43-0 seemed to make a mockery of the senior nationals simply because such a ‘huge competitive gap’ between two team does not send out the ‘right message about Indian domestic hockey’ regardless of the back-to-back Olympic medals the national team have won at Tokyo and Paris.

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The biggest question doing the rounds is whether Hockey India should adopt ‘structural changes’ in the way senior men nationals is conducted. To be fair to Hockey India, they have been making efforts to ensure a ‘high dose of competitiveness is retained’ in the nationals. It may be worth recalling that Hockey India initiated the concept of ‘A’ and ‘B’ division senior men nationals from 2014 onwards – that is the 4th edition since the first nationals was kickstarted under the aegis of Hockey India in 2011 after they took over from the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) in 2009. Interestingly, no senior men nationals was held between 2006 and 2011 – IHF had conducted the last national championship in 2006 in Delhi and Punjab.

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Hockey India further rejigged the senior men nationals and dispensed with the concept of ‘A’ and ‘B’ division nationals by introducing an Inter-Departmental Senior Men Nationals from 2021 onwards – a move that was received well. But the larger problem of exposing extremely weaker teams to top sides surfaced because there was no ‘A’ or ‘B’ division nationals now. The Inter-Departmental Senior Men Nationals was a good move but maybe the ‘A’ or ‘B’ division should have been persisted with. Or has time has come to install a promotion-relegation format wherein teams can be clubbed in A, B and C divisions with winners securing promotion and bottom-placed teams facing relegation. Surely, there are possibilities the organisers can explore.

It’s not about just one match – Hockey Andaman & Nicobar also lost to Hockey Madhya Pradesh 0-29 and subsequently lost to Hockey Andhra Pradesh 0-13, collectively leaking 85 goals in three games – a truly forgettable statistics if you are a team competing in the senior nationals.

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Hockey Andaman & Nicobar current domestic player and coach Sahu Surju puts up a brave front. “There is no doubt that we were a weak side but that is not an excuse. The Tamil Nadu game was one where they needed forty goals to qualify and so they went for broke from the start. We operate with a lot of infrastructural constraints – my boys train on grass as we don’t have any Astroturf in Andaman. The frequent bouts of rain ensure we cannot train for lengthy periods as we would desire.”

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The 26-year-old coach – probably one of the youngest coaches in the senior men nationals, reveals the challenges of playing in the senior men nationals. “My boys belong to poor families and scattered across different islands and sometimes ferry service is not regular and so it is not easy to assemble the team for training. There is a paucity of good coaches in Andaman and once we have access to good coaches and good infrastructure, I’m sure Hockey Andaman & Nicobar would be able to give a good account of themselves in the senior nationals in the future. I’m saying this because my boys are passionate about hockey and are willing to put in the hard yards,” quips Sahu.

Sahu, who plays as a forward and represented Hockey Andaman & Nicobar thrice in the senior nationals, says playing on turf after training on grass is a different experience altogether. “My boys trained on grass and when they are playing on the turf, it is a different ball game for them. My boys found it exceedingly challenging playing on the turf – the pace at which hockey is played on turf is different from playing on grass.”