Hockey India Senior National Women Championships to take place in Kerala without national team and Railways players

Navneet Kaur will also have to skip this tournament
Navneet Kaur will also have to skip this tournament

What's the story?

The 10th edition of the prestigious Hockey India Senior Women National Championships will begin in Kerala from 10th January. However, the big names of the Indian women's hockey team will skip this tournament because of their training camp. Besides, the Railways players will also be out of action because of the ban imposed on Railways Sports Promotion Board.

The background

The 25 probables of the senior Indian women's hockey team are training at the SAI center national camp ahead of their New Zealand tour. With the Tokyo Olympics set to take place later this year, the officials want the players to focus only on the international fixtures.

On the other side, Hockey India had suspended RSPB because of a player fraud committed by a male athlete in an all-India tournament two years ago. According to the reports, the player continued to play for the Railways and represented them in two more tournaments during the year 2019. Also, the Railways players will not be allowed to play for their respective states in the tournament.

The heart of the matter

As reported by TOI, the nation's top tier players namely Navneet Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Sushila Chanu, Neha Goyal, Vandana Katariya, Lalremsiami, Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Reena Khokhar, Manpreet Kaur, Nisha, Jyoti, Nikki Pradhan, Rajwinder Kaur, Rajani Etimarpu will miss the national championships in Kerala.

Railways had won the tournament at Hisar last year, however, since they will not be able to take part in the 2020 national championships, the authorities have come up with their own Inter-Railways league. Talking to TOI on Monday (13th January), RPSB Secretary Prem Chand Lochab revealed the following details:

“We’re providing our players with a chance to compete with each other. It’s mandatory and both rewards and cash prize are offered. When our players can’t play in the national why should others gain from our loss."

What's next?

It will be intriguing to see which team rises to the occasion and claims the women's national championship in the upcoming tourney.

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Edited by Zaid Khan