Bangalore, May 26: The lop-sided results in the league of the Punjab and Sind Bank 58th Senior National Hockey championship here, the hockey buff was left wondering about the difference of standard in the game of various teams in the country.

Victories for fancied sides with margins of ten plus became routine, leaving the onlookers bored and disappointed. Only three matches out of the 64 played in the eight pool league matched the interest of a hockey fan would have expected before the tournament.

Even a state like Uttar Pradesh, which has produced many a stalwart in the past looked depleted, thanks to the erosion of talent to institutional sides. The fact that four out of the eight quarterfinalists are institutional sides should give ample proof to the supremacy they enjoy in domestic hockey.

Amongst the others, two non-institutional sides look almost `institutional'- Bombay comprise mainly of players from Mahindras and Bharat Petroleum, while Tamil Nadu rely mainly of Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank. It is anybody's guess that if the Indian Hockey Federation was to grant associate memberships to sides like Mahindras and All-India Banks what the plight of others State sides would be.

Talking about associate membership to participate in the premier championship of the country, which was held after a gap of three years, out of the six new entrants only one made past the league phase. Air-India, the lone debutante to enter the last eight too had to struggle before outwitting traditional powerhouse Punjab.

The entry of the associate members to the Nationals did not benefit anybody except the coffers of the IHF (by way of the five lakhs of rupees each the associate members had paid to gain entry into the tourney). All that the associate members did was to deplete the state side they were affiliated to earlier. For example, the Border Security Force and All-India Central Excise made a dent into the strength of the sides like Delhi and Karnataka, while Punjab and Sind Bank decreased the power of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.Where does that leave the domestic circuit now ?

Many former players opined that if only the institutional sides are made to play in a separate tournament, the standard and the charm of a championship like the Nationals will remain. ``All the institutional sides should be made to play a tournament from which the top two or three should qualify to play the Nationals,'' said M P Ganesh, Executive Director of Sports Authority of India South Centre.

Former Olympic captain and a selector now, Zafar Iqbal felt the need to have a National Hockey League separate from the Nationals was never felt before as now. ``If we have a National league where club and institutional sides play, we can retain the importance of the Nationals,'' he said.

Another former Olympic captain M M Somayya suggested the two-tier system, where teams will get relegated from and promoted to based on their performance. ``Pick sixteen top teams from this Nationals and make them play between themselves in the `National A', while the others can battle it out in the `National B'. The top four from B can play the A the next year and the bottom four of A should play the B,'' he suggested.

There may be difference of opinion as to how to change the format, but there was no difference of thought as to the format of the Nationals should change.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.