The national pride game hockey has taken a back seat with advent of games like Cricket and Tennis. The crises are more for the women’s league which really garners no or nill support from the general public. In order to popularize the game adequate funds are needed to kindle the fan fare with organizing more events to get public to the stadiums. But for the surplus funds are needed which the government is reluctant. In a recent chat with the Chairman of Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament Committee, Kamal Chaudhary, at Delhi on Monday he expressed disappointment and said the Indian women's hockey team was not getting adequate support and financial assistance to meet its requirements.

The committee announced the launch of 22nd Lal Bahadur Shashtri Under-21 four nation women's hockey tournament, which to be played at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium at the Capital. Chaudhary said that the main objective behind the tournament was to popularise and encourage the sport but it was not getting adequate support and financial assistance to meet its requirements. `What I had wanted was that every four year, we would have an international tournament and we have a normal tournament also, which is not taking place from November 26 to December 3, so every year, the difficulty which you (media persons) find is the financial part’, he said. Chaudhary further said that although hockey is regarded as the national sport, but it has not been encouraged much in India like other sports.

The main initiative that was taken by the committee was to promote four nation under-21 women's Hockey Tournament. The tournament would include top ranked hockey teams of the world chiefly Germany, Australia and New Zealand along with India. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit would inaugurate the opening ceremony. The first match is to be played between Australia and Germany, whereas the Indian team would take on New Zealand. The tournament is scheduled to begin from November 8 and would conclude on November 12.

The Indian Captain, Poonam Rani was brimming with confidence of conquering the cup on home turf. She was positive in her approach and said, although the competition was tough but the Indian team was ready to put up a good show.