Jyoti Sunita Kullu at the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad
Photograph by Vino John of The Hindu

ndian women's hockey team captain Jyoti Sunita Kullu will have the honour of carrying the Indian tricolour at the opening ceremony of the Doha Asian Games in December.

Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said, "Jyoti Kullu will be the flag-bearer of the 400-strong Indian contingent at the Doha Asian Games. Jyoti is a tribal girl. She and other tribal sportspeople have done India proud. It is in recognition of their efforts and to provide a further boost to their morale that this decision has been taken."

Though it is not first time a sportswoman was selected to lead the Indian contingent at the Asian Games (sprint queen P. T. Usha was the flag-bearer for India in the past), it's surely a first for Indian women's hockey.

Kullu, who made her international debut a decade ago in the 1996 Indira Gandhi Gold Cup, won gold medals for India at the 2002 Commonwealth Games (Manchester), 2003 Afro-Asian Games (Hyderabad) and 2004 Asia Cup (Delhi).

A two-time winner of the Hockey Year Book Women's Player of the Year award, Jyoti Sunita was top scorer of many National Championships, which her institutional team Railways won for a record 22 years, a feat unmatched in Indian team sports.

Jyoti is from the Sundargarh region of Orissa, the same place from where Dileep Tirkey, captain of the Indian men's hockey team hails from.

Hockey is the adopted sport of India's Orissa-Jharkhand-Bihar-Chattisgadh tribal belt. Both the women's hockey team captain (Jyoti Kullu) and the men's hockey team captain (Dileep Tirkey) of India are tribals. No other team sport in India has tribals as both the women's and men's team captains.

Kullu and Tirkey are the latest in a long line of tribal hockey stars who have played with distinction for India.

India's first Olympic hockey captain was a tribal, Jaipal Singh of Jharkhand. He captained India in the 1928 Amsterdam Games, where India won the hockey gold on debut.

Michael Kindo, the first Adivasi to win the Arjuna Puraskar in India, was member of the 1975 World Cup hockey winning team. Till date, this is India's only World Cup triumph in hockey.

This honour accorded to Jyoti Kullu is an honour to the various tribals who have represented India in hockey - the Barlas, Becks, Bhengras, Dung Dungs, Ekkas, Kerkettas, Kindos, Kujurs, Kullus, Lakras, Minzs, Tetes, Tirkeys, Topnos, Toppos, Xalcos and many others from India's tribal hinterland.

Baldev Khalsi (front right) and his friends cheering the Indian team
Photograph and Text by Vijay Sathya

t is day 10 of the 2006 BDO Men’s Hockey World Cup at Monchengladbach, Germany. The gates of the Warsteiner Hockey stadium have barely opened when 56-year-old Baldev Khalsi alights from the bus and pauses briefly to prepare himself for the 15-minute walk to the stadium.

Age has slowed down the well-built Sardar, but his eyes still shine in a timeless sparkle as he trudges towards the stadium sporting an Indian hockey jersey, clutching his trusted video camera and handbag.

India may be playing Argentina for the 9th to 12th placings, but there is no room for despondency here; "Arre, aaj to India ka bahut important match hai" ( India has a very important game to play today) he says with earnest.

Baldev Khalsi is not alone. He is soon joined by a group of mostly Sardars, some as young as 15, all sporting the Indian jersey, carrying Indian flags and even a dhol (drum). The guards at the stadium entrance greet them warmly and wave them through. "Crazy Indian hockey guys" the security guard says with a bemused smile.

These are no ordinary Indian hockey fans. Based now in the United Kingdom, and with three generations of Indian hockey lovers in their ranks, their following of Indian hockey stretches so many years back that they can put veteran hockey correspondents to shame.

And by "following Indian hockey", we mean physically traveling to the stadium and staying the entire length of the tournament. Baldev Khalsi, who is an employee of Britiish Airways, has not missed a single tournament featuring India since the 1975 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

How do they muster the time and resources to support such an expensive passion? "We work hard, save money and have absolutely no hesitation in spending it to support the Indian hockey team" says Bhupinder, as his son Sachdev Singh looks on with a smile. Consideration here must also go to their wives who put up with their frequent traveling but do not accompany them on their trips.

Frantic cheering, slogan shouting and the beating of dhols accompany the Indian hockey team as they take on Argentina. The cheering turns to despair and silence as India go on to lose the game. Disappointment is writ large across their faces and words are not minced as they vent their frustrations.

Nevertheless, they are back again early morning the very next day to cheer the Indian team through to a win against South Africa and a dismal 11th (second from last) place finish at the World Cup. And as India winds up its disastrous campaign, they are all busy making plans for their next trip - the upcoming Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, where India faces a tough battle to finish amongst the top two and qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

India may have failed to shine at the 2006 World Cup, but this boisterous group of flag waving, drum beating and slogan chanting Indian hockey fans have stolen the limelight for India off the pitch.

Admired for their spirit and respected for their knowledge of hockey, they are indeed a popular lot in and around the stadium. "Win or lose, India is always the best" shouts Bhupinder.

In a cricket-crazy nation where hockey is struggling for survival, Indian hockey can forever count on the unconditional love and support of this passionate band of Indian hockey supporters. Truly, a legion of the faithful.

he author/publisher of the renowned International Hockey Year Book series, K. Arumugam, was honoured recently by the Surjeet Hockey Society for his contribution towards promotion of hockey.

Punjab's Minister for Public Works and Education, Sardar Pratip Singh Bajwa, presented a certificate and a purse of Rs. 3,100 during the halftime of the 23rd Surjeet Singh hockey tournament final on 15th November, 2006.

For more than two decades, the Surjeet Hockey Society has been organising an annual All-India Grade I tournament at Jalandhar to perpetuate the memory of the late Surjeet Singh Randhava, India’s 1982 World Cup captain.

According to the Working President of the Society, L. R. Nayyar, "Arumugam's article on Major Dhyan Chand, from one of his books 'Great Indian Olympians' is in the English Syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education. Millions of India's young generation are thus getting to study the greatness of Dhyan Chand every year. Arumugam has authored 12 books so far. These original works are appreciated by the hockey community both in India as well as outside India."

Accepting the reward, author K. Arumugam said, "I came to Jalandhar to cover the Surjeet Singh hockey tournament, and it was a pleasant surprise to get this unexpected honour. This will further motivate me to continue to author, publish and popularise books on hockey."

Arun Arnaw
Article courtesy K. Arumugam of Stick2Hockey.com

user-friendly CD-based hockey statistical compilation was recently released by the legendary Olympian Ashok Kumar in a simple but impressive ceremony in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

The laudable effort, hosted by the popular Hindi sports monthly National Sports Times, does not come a day late, as published data on hockey, especially Indian hockey, is as scarce as the Indian team winning on the world stage.

Well-known sports critic and writer Arun Arnaw has accomplished this valuable work.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ashok Kumar, the illustrious son of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, hailed Arnaw's work and opined that for hockey to prosper, there should be more such efforts so that people won't forget the sport. He also expressed his gratitude for the compiler's commitment towards hockey, which Arnaw has been passionately following over many decades.

This CD contains significant statistics on leading hockey tournaments such as World Cup, Olympics, Champions Trophy, Asian Games, Asia Cup, Commonwealth Games, Afro-Asian Games, Pan American Games, European Nations Cup, Azlan Shah Cup, Inter-Continental Cup and other tournaments.

Most importantly, this CD features statistics of both men's and women's competitions. One can find detailed match results and goal scorers in separate chapters, apart from overall statistics for every tournament.

This is the only compilation on hockey statistics of its kind ever to hit the stands in India, and perhaps in the world. It is an exhaustive compilation, and can make a journalist's job of writing on hockey much more easy and purposeful. Therefore, this is a must for all media personnel and hockey lovers.

This valuable CD is modestly prized at Rs. 200/- + Rs. 50 postage, and can directly be obtained from Animesh Khare, D-1/35 Danish Nagar, Hoshangabad Road, Bhopal (MP), Pin 462026, India. For more detail and purchase information, contact arunarnaw@hotmail.com or animesh_khare@hotmail.com.

he 62nd Dainik Bhaskar-Tracer Shoes National Hockey Championship for the Rangaswami Cup was held in Delhi and in various locations in Punjab from October 20 to November 3, 2006.

The competition was robbed of its glamour when the IHF prohibited 20 probables in an ongoing Asian Games camp in Rourkela from participating in the Nationals. This speaks poorly of the planning done by the IHF that it could not spare the country's top players for its national hockey championship.

Air India hockey team manager Peter Saldanha said, "With lot of difficulty, we got Air India to employ four hockey players after a long gap of ten years. But now, we cannot even utilise their services because of this simultaneous camp. What is the use of conducting an important tournament such as the Nationals if we can make use of our top players?"

What has irked many is the IHF's unethical decision to please a few teams at the expense of others. Their grouse is not without reason as the IHF met the player demands of northern-based teams like Indian Airlines, Indian Oil and Punjab, while steadfastly ignoring the requests of southern-based teams like Karnataka and Air India.

"The IHF allowed Adrian D'Souza, Arjun Halappa and Vikram Pillai to leave the camp and play for Indian Airlines in the Nationals. Sardara Singh has been cleared to play for Indian Oil, Kanvalpreet Singh is with Punjab. So why can't I have my best players - Gurbaj Singh, Gurvinder Singh Chandi and Ajmer Singh - for the Nationals? Why did the IHF allow Gagan Ajeet Singh, Dileep Tirkey and V. Raja to play in the European league when the camp was on? Gill is being fed by his coterie, which is promoting favouritism and ruining our national game. How can anyone trust Gill's words? It's high time Gill stepped down as IHF president and give the baton to someone more sensible and considerate," said Air India team manager Peter Saldanha.

"We could not have the services of Tushar Khandekar, Hari Prasad, William Xalco and Bharat Chetri because of the ongoing Asiad camp. Gill said that no player in the camp would be released for the Nationals. We took him at his word and decided not to argue. But now we learn that Indian Oil, Indian Airlines and Punjab have been given special treatment. This saddens us," said Karnataka State Hockey Association secretary K. Krishnamurthy.

Back to the Nationals, which were held in three phases. In Phase I, 37 full members of the IHF played in a league/knockout format at 4 locations in Punjab (Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bhaini Sahib, Ludhiana). The following 8 full members qualified for the Super League stage - Indian Airlines, Railways, Services, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Punjab, Delhi and Chandigadh.

In a parallel Phase II, 14 associate members of the IHF played qualifying matches at the National Stadium in Delhi from October 20-24. Even before the tournament began, 4 affiliate members pulled out of the championship - All India Electricity Board, All India Postal Board, Customs and Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

The following 4 affiliate members qualified for the Super League stage - defending champion Punjab & Sindh Bank, defending runner-up Indian Oil, Namdhari XI and Air India.

The Super League, semi-finals and final were played at Surjeet Hockey Stadium in Burlton Park, Jalandhar, from October 28 to November 3. The last time the national hockey championship was held in Punjab was in 1981. This time, after a gap of 25 years, the IHF had allotted the senior nationals to the Punjab Hockey Association.

Punjab & Sindh Bank and Delhi reached the final of the national hockey championship, with the following match results:

Stage	Date	Delhi	Punjab & Sindh Bank
League	Oct 20	beat Tripura 18-2	walkover Customs
	Oct 21		beat CISF 5-0
	Oct 22	beat Jammu & Kashmir 7-1
	Oct 23	drew with Uttar Pradesh 1-1
	Oct 25	beat Jharkhand 9-1
Super League	Oct 28		beat Services 3-1
	Oct 29		beat Chandigadh 2-0
	Oct 30	beat Mumbai 5-4
	Oct 31	beat Air India 3-1
Semi-finals	Nov 2	beat Namdhari XI 2-1	beat Indian Oil 1-0

It was a historic feat for Delhi to reach the final of the national hockey championship. Delhi had last entered the final in 1946, when India had not yet won Independence. Delhi last won the championship in Lahore in undivided India in 1942.

The final pitted bankmen against bankmen. While one of the finalists was Jalandhar-based Punjab & Sindh Bank, the other finalist, Delhi, had 15 of its 18 players employed by Punjab National Bank (PNB). The manager of the Delhi team, Ashok Sharma, was from PNB, while the sponsors of the Delhi team were PNB.

In the final of the tournament played on November 3 in Jalandhar, Punjab & Sindh Bank beat Delhi 3-1 to retain their title.

Doordarshan telecast both the semi-finals and final matches live. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was the chief guest at the final, and gave away the trophy to the winners. Indian Oil whipped Namdhari XI 7-2 to finish 3rd.

he 17th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament was held at the Shivaji Stadium in Delhi from October 1 to October 8, 2006. Due to poor planning, coordination and communication by the IHF, this year's edition of the Lal Bahadur Shastri tournament saw many top players missing from action, courtesy a national camp in Rourkela that was conducted at the same time.

"We had sent the proposal to the IHF in January of this year, for the October tournament. The IHF gave its consent to host the tournament, but then issued a directive to all national players not to take part in any domestic tournaments till the Doha Asian Games," said an organising committee member.

Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum reached the final of the tournament, with the following match results:

Date	Indian Oil	Bharat Petroleum
Oct 3	drew with Namdhari XI 2-2	beat Seema Suraksha Bal (BSF) 3-1
Oct 4	drew with Punjab National Bank 1-1	beat ONGC 5-2
Oct 6	beat Air India 3-0	lost to Indian Airlines 1-3
Oct 7 (semis)	beat Indian Airlines 2-1 (golden goal)	beat Namdhari XI 5-4 (2-2), tie-breaker

In the final of the tournament played on October 8, Indian Oil defeated Bharat Petroleum through tie-breaker (5-3) to emerge champions.

Amar Ayyamma shot home in the 29th minute to help Bharat Petroleum go into the lemon break with a 1-0 lead. However, Indian Oil's Divakar Ram converted a penalty corner in the 62nd minute to level the scores and set the stage for a nail-biting finish.

As the winners could not be decided during the regulation time, extra-time came into force. But even then the scoreline did not change. In the tie-breaker, Ravi Nayakar of BPCL missed a shot to allow Indian Oil lift the title.

Bharat Sikara was adjudged the player of the tournament.

This was the second successive time that Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum reached a tournament final. Just a week earlier, these same two teams met in the final of the Gurmeet Memorial Tournament, and this was the second successive time that Indian Oil beat Bharat Petroleum to win the title.

Olympian Mohammad Shaheed

he Photograph of the Month for November 2006 is of Mohammad Shaheed. The photograph is taken from the book 'Great Indian Olympians', written by Gulu Ezekiel and K. Arumugam.

Hindi film actor Tom Alter was a big admirer of Shaheed, and had the following to say on his hockey idol:

"Shaheed is a genius ,and a genius in any field always creates his own music, always makes his own path, always confuses and annoys the experts. And is always loved by the true fan, the connoiseur."

n a major boost to domestic hockey, the IHF has signed a 5-year deal with the Dainik Bhaskar newspaper group for the sponsorship of the national hockey championship.

The sponsorship deal, signed on September 14, 2006, will ensure that the senior nationals, till now not being held on a regular basis, would be staged without interruption for the next half a decade.

"We want to make it a regular event, but holding the Nationals is an expensive affair. For instance, this year's edition will have about 850 players from 47 teams competing," said IHF president Gill at the function for announcing the new sponsor and unveiling the logo of the Senior Nationals.

Tracer Shoes, owned by Nitin Kohli, was a co-sponsor of the 2006 Nationals.

Hyderabad had hosted the previous edition of the event, while Ludhiana will host the final phase of the event in 2007, which will follow an inter-zonal format.

elevision Rating Points (TRP) numbers judge viewership of various television shows, and the Premier Hockey League (PHL) is doing well on that front.

According to R. C. Venkatesh, managing director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd, the rights holders of the PHL, "The PHL has got good and consistent TRP ratings over the last two years. Yes, if you compare it with cricket then the numbers will be low, but compared to other sports we have got the numbers, and that is why we are planning the PHL on a larger scale this year."

Venkatesh added that the numbers were not just based on the viewership from one city but across the country. "An East Bengal versus Mohun Bagan match might get good ratings overall, but if one analyses it, around 70% would be from Kolkata alone. But this is not the case with PHL as the numbers are pretty much uniform from across the country," he said.

This was one of the reasons ESPN requested the IHF to play the third edition of the PHL in a multi-venue format. The 2007 PHL will be played at two venues, Chennai and Chandigadh. The top five teams of last year along with the top two from last year's Tier II will be playing in the Premier Division, that will start on January 2, 2007 at Chennai. The 2007 edition will no longer have a Tier II division.

A novel penalty shoot-out that gives equal chance to the striker and goalkeeper will be introduced in the third edition of the PHL.

Under the new concept, if the match ends without a result even after the two extra-time periods, the winners would be decided through a penalty shootout competition. During the shoot-out, each of the five players of a team will play a one-on-one with the rival custodian. Each player will have eight seconds to start with the ball from the 25-yard line and score. The player can have as many shots as possible at goal within the stipulated time.

"The rule offers much interesting and competing dimension. Unlike a normal penalty shoot-out, it offers equal chances to attacking as well as defending players. The 8-second duration was decided based on an empirical estimation of time taken to move the ball from the 25-yard line and score the goal. This is the first of its kind in hockey at any level. The aim of the innovation is to add more excitement for the television viewers and for the public inside the stadium," said R. C. Venkatesh.

In the previous two editions, the PHL had introduced several new concepts to the traditional rules, such as splitting the 70-minute playing time into four quarters, and providing basketball-like timeouts.

Cricket's third-umpire concept was introduced in the Indian league earlier this year. The successful experiment was soon adopted by the International Hockey Federation when it introduced a third, off-the-field umpire to back up the two on-field officials during the men's World Cup in September.

N. Bhanutej is this edition's Visitor of the Month. Bhanutej sent the following email to BharatiyaHockey.org:

As a journalist covering the 15th Asian Games at Doha in December, I will be following the fortunes of the Indian hockey team up close. My contribution as a journalist will be through my articles

Statistics by B. G. Joshi

his month's edition of Fun with Numbers deals with the National Hockey Championships in India.

There have been a total of 67 winners or joint winners of the National Hockey Championship in India, since the inaugural nationals were held in 1928. The winners list proves that institutions are the heart and soul of Indian hockey. 4 institutions - Railways, Services, Indian Airlines and Punjab & Sindh Bank - have won the Nationals 39 out of the 67 times (58%).

Among the states, Punjab has won more nationals (16) that all other states combined (12). Punjab was the first team to win a hat trick of National Hockey Championships (1949-51). Punjab is also the last team to win a hat trick of National Hockey Championships (1981-83).

Punjab and Railways are the only teams to win a hat trick of Nationals on 3 separate occasions. Punjab won consecutive Nationals in 1949-51, 1969-72 and 1981-83, while Railways won consecutive Nationals in 1957-59, 1966-68 and 1974-77.

The list of all National Hockey Championship winners is given below (* indicates joint winners).

Winners	Team	Triumphant Years
21	Railways	1930, 57, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66*, 67*, 68, 70*, 74, 75, 76, 77*, 80, 87, 88, 90, 93, 97
16	Punjab	1932, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 54, 62, 65, 69, 70*, 71, 72, 81, 82, 83
8	Services	1953, 55*, 56, 60, 66*, 73, 85, 92
	Indian Airlines	1977*, 78, 79, 84, 86, 94, 99, 2000
3	Bengal	1936, 38, 52
	Mumbai	1940, 44, 89
2	Bhopal	1945, 48
	Tamil Nadu	1955*, 67*
	Punjab & Sindh Bank	2005, 06
1	Uttar Pradesh	1928
	Delhi	1942