Yesterday, the Shrachi Bengal Tigers of the Women’s Hockey India League dropped a 5-0 loss to the Ranchi Royals. Thing is, you can’t exactly blame U.S. goalkeeper Jenny Rizzo for that because of how the Royals played in the attacking third.
Ranchi had the dominance of play in the attacking third, badly outnumbering Shrachi in terms of circle penetrations.
But what the Royals also did was something that the rulesmakers in field hockey have been trying to prevent in many different disciplines of the game: encouraging dangerous deflection plays in the tight confines of the striking circle.
A number of rules changes in the last decade, ranging from the change in the start of the long corner to the rules disallowing direct passes into the circle from free hits inside the 23-meter stripe, have aimed at stopping what some observers have called “slam-ball.” That is, sending the ball into the scoring area with speed, hoping for deflections, but with a high possibility of creating danger for players in the circle.
Yesterday, four of Ranchi’s five goals came off of very fortunate (or unfortunate) deflections in the striking circle. Two went into the goal off Bengal defenders, one went off Rizzo’s moonboot, and one deflected off a Bengal foot and right to a Ranchi attacker, who perhaps had half a second to shoot and made no mistake from about six yards.
The game of field hockey, at this level, can often have incidents and occurrences which aren’t found in the rulebook. It can also identify the need for new regulations to deal with loopholes in the existing rules.
While the game was played in accordance with the Rules of Hockey, there is still indiscriminate smashing of the ball into the critical scoring area.
I’m not sure this is good for players’ health. Or the good of the game.