One must give Hockey India a pat on their backs for creating two separate divisions – ‘A’ and ‘B’ for both men and women nationals. The move appears to be a good one simply because there is little point in having less competitive matches where stronger teams annihilate weaker sides. At least, that would avoid ridiculously lop-sided victories for stronger teams in the nationals.
“Nobody likes to see 30-0 or 40-0 wins for teams – fans mostly want to see fierce encounters and do not prefer drab draws or comical one-sided wins,” says a veteran hockey organizer. Clearly, having separate divisions for the nationals was nothing less than a masterstroke by Hockey India but one thing the federation left untouched is spacing out all nationals around the same time.
Over the years, Hockey India has held most nationals simultaneously. While not trying to pick holes in Hockey India’s way of operating things, one can suggest that spacing out the nationals will allow lovers of the sport to follow it closely. Sample this – the Senior Men Nationals, both ‘A’ and ‘B’ division, are either held around the same time or starting or ending a few days later in Saifai, Uttar Pradesh.
Same for the Senior Women Nationals – it is either held around the same time or starting or ending a few days later in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Even the Women Junior Nationals are on in Ranchi.
The point one is trying to make is that when you have five nationals happening at the same time, it looks like the events are staged just for the sake of holding it. Even from the organizational perspective, it must be not easy for the federation to stage five events either around the same time i.e. starting or ending a few days later.
Spacing out the nationals and holding one at a time will ensure each event gets its rightful share of media attention and public will be able to track the performances much more easily. Obviously, the idea is to get more people watch or read about the nationals and spacing out the nationals can be a good move. One hopes that Hockey India will think hard about spacing out the nationals.
