- LATEST
- WEBSTORY
- TRENDING
SPORTS
Stage set for youngsters
Thirty six teams fight for top honours in the senior national hockey starting today.
Updated : Sep 29, 2017, 09:37 AM IST
TRENDING NOW
)
Indian Army foils Pakistan's drone attack on Golden Temple with precision, know how
)
CJI BR Gavai issues BIG statement days after taking oath, says 'Constitution of India...'
)
Who is Priyanka Senapati? Odisha YouTuber under IB scanner in Jyoti Malhotra spy case
)
Sachin Tendulkar's daughter Sara Tendulkar shares pic of 'Love' found in Australia, netizens can't keep calm
)
Meet 53 year old actress who played 3 roles with same actor, became his lover, wife, mother; is still single, her name is..., actor is...
)
Virat Kohli's viral class 10 marksheet shared with a special message, check his highest scores
)
Jyoti Malhotra Net Worth: How much does woman accused of being Pakistani spy earn from YouTube monthly?
)
Viral video: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan performs to Rekha's iconic song In Aankhon Ki Masti, fans say 'the only woman who...'
)
Viral video of actress Ananya Panday dancing with father Chunky Panday delights Internet: 'She won as a daughter'
)
Meet Indian genius who studied just 4 hours a day, scored 705/720 in NEET exam, got admission in AIIMS, she is from...
)
Urvashi Rautela suffers major wardrobe mishap at Cannes 2025; netizens say 'first Indian actress to...'
)
This actor forcibly kissed 15-year-old actress, left her traumatised, in tears, then laughed while justifying the act; he is...
)
India to supply arms to Armenia soon to punish Azerbaijan and Turkey, Pakistan may be pushed to difficult position for...
)
Trade war escalates between China and US as Beijing imposes unexpected ban on export of THESE rare earth metals
)
Big blow for Kavya Maran's SRH, in the middle of IPL 2025, THIS star player tests COVID-19 positive, likely to miss LSG clash
The second edition of the Hockey India Senior National Men’s Championship is all set to begin here on Sunday. The buzz around the championship may not be so big this time due to the situation the sport finds itself in the country today.
The event, nevertheless, is going to see 31 states and five institutional teams battling it out over 10 days for the title. The national selectors and government observers will be witnessing the matches, which will be held at the Hockey Stadium and Madras Engineer Group turfs, and it gives a good chance for many youngsters to show his skills. After the depressing show by the Indian team at the London Olympics, the need of the hour, perhaps, is to find fresh players who are raring to go.
Many of the teams in the fray will not really be up to the mark. The teams have been divided into eight pools. While the first four have five teams each, the last four have four teams each. The group-toppers will advance to the knockout quarterfinal stage.
The serious title contenders are expected to be defending champions Haryana, last year’s runners-up Karnataka, Air India, Services, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Hockey Bhopal and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana will have in their ranks ace Indian midfielder Sardara Singh but Sandeep Singh is not well and will most likely not play. Karnataka will be led by drag-flick specialist VR Raghunath and will have among others Vikramkanth (vice-captain), SK Uthappa and Pundalik Bellary. The other internationals expected to turn out are SV Sunil, Ignace Tirkey (both Services), Sarwanjit Singh (Punjab), Tushar Khandekar (UP), Shivendra Singh (AI), Gurvinder Singh Chandi (Punjab) and PR Sreejesh (TN).
On the opening day, the mouth-watering clashes include Haryana vs Hockey Bhopal (Pool A) and Odisha vs Tamil Nadu (Pool G). Both matches are crucial for the teams and a win is most likely to see the team top the group.
“We have a good team, it is a good mix of experience and youth,” said Karnataka skipper Raghunath. “We want to put up a good show particularly because we are the hosts. We want to do better than last year. We want to take it match by match and we are expecting all teams to put up a good fight. We will give it our 100 per cent and all are playing well,” he added.
