This January, 4 ladies’s groups comprising 24 gamers every are going to compete within the inaugural ladies’s Hockey India League, a short-term competitors partially based mostly on among the T20 cricket leagues, in that the groups play round-robin for a compressed league season (normally 4 to 6 weeks) and gamers are allowed to play in a couple of league over the course of a calendar 12 months as an alternative of being tied to 1 group.
The Hockey India League for males started 11 years in the past, and remained a males’s competitors throughout its five-year run. However now, a ladies’s competitors has begun, however it’s not equal in most metrics. First off, there are solely 4 groups within the ladies’s league, in comparison with the eight within the males’s league.
Additionally, the wage cap for every group on the lads’s aspect was 300 lakh, or about $400,000. The ladies, nevertheless, have been allowed a complete of 200 lakh, or about $270,000, per group.
I perceive the lads’s competitors has a number of years on the ladies’s competitors. However the go-slow method for the ladies’s HIL has, I feel, resulted in quite a few wonderful gamers being left unselected.
I’m amazed, for instance, that Delfina Merino, the plucky attacker from Argentina, was not one of many 86 gamers chosen for the league. Additionally unselected have been U.S. captain Ashley Hoffman, Australian star Rachael Lynch, Workforce GB stars Sophie Bray, Lily Owsley, and Grace Balsdon, and Maria Granatto of Argentina.
The 4 groups shaped yesterday ought to kind the spine for future alternatives for girls to make a residing from the game, particularly if the league grows to 6 groups in 2026.
Key gamers on the 4 sides embrace Yibbi Jansen of Holland, former Maryland star Nike Lorenz of Germany, Kaitlyn Nobbs of Australia, former UConn star Roisin Upton, and German star Charlotte Stapenhorst.
And, lest we overlook, the one American chosen within the preliminary roster meeting is Jenny Rizzo, the previous Penn State goalkeeper.
However much more key to the success of the league are the rank-and-file gamers from India. The league ensures a big share of gamers from the Hockey India system, together with the likes of Deep Grace Ekka, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami Hmarzote, and defender Utita Duhan, who commanded the biggest public sale value at 32 lakh, or about $45,000.
If there’s one story I’d prefer to comply with through the course of the upcoming season, it’s the return of Preeti Dubay. The spunky ahead shone throughout a sequence of pre-Olympic friendlies in 2016, however had been relegated to a reserve position after lacking out on the Rio Olympic roster. She was a enjoyable participant to look at for Workforce India, and the league presents her an opportunity to get again into competition for choice to the Eves.