Chaos reigns as four teams fail to show up

Organisers face tough task, rescheduling on the cards

While defending champions Railways pulled out before the start along with favourites Jharkhand and Chandigarh, four teams -- Bhopal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Tripura -- who had their matches scheduled on Thursday failed to show up, leaving the organisers running helter-skelter in trying to get the matches underway.

Apart from these three teams, there is still no news on the participation of West Bengal and Uttarakhand.

One of the main beneficiaries of the wide absenteeism in the April 6-13 meet could be hosts Karnataka, who can make the quarterfinal cut from Pool B without even hitting a ball. Their match against Rajasthan scheduled for Thursday evening has been postponed, while it’s still uncertain if Uttarakhand will arrive on Friday morning.

Strangely, the organisers did not award a walkover -- as is the norm -- to Karnataka, hoping the other two teams will make it by Friday. “The non-arrival of many teams is continuing to cause a huge headache for us,” admitted tournament director Satinder Singh Walia. “Only 21 of the 27 teams have checked in to the City so far. This has forced us change the schedule umpteen times.

“I am still not sure about the six others. We will wait until tomorrow afternoon before taking a call on whether to go ahead without them or extend the preliminary league by a day. I just hope the six make it,” added Walia.

Meanwhile, Memtombi and Monorama scored four goaals apiece as Manipur crushed Gujarat 13-0 in their Pool C encounter. Bijeta and Ashalatha struck a brace each while Aruna capped up an easy day in the office, scoring the final goal.

Results: Pool A: Tamil Nadu w/o Tripura.
Pool C: Manipur: 13 (Bijeta 6th, 52nd, Ashalatha 12th, 50th, Memtombi 16th, 37th 45th, 49th, Monorama 17th, 35th, 44th, 47th, Aruna 55th) bt Gujarat 0; Madhya Pradesh: 1 (Lilima 58th) bt Uttar Pradesh 0.
Pool F: Pune District Hockey Association: 5 (Rama 32nd, 40th, 44th, Pooja 22nd, 35th) bt Dadra Nagar Haveli: 3 (Karishma 20th, Nagma 48th, Priya 56th). Pool H: Mizoram 2 (Lalsangzuali 37th, 41st) bt Kerala: 0.