Chennai, June 07: The 11th national women's championship kicks off here today, but without much competitive interest after All India Football Federation's decision to send 20 top players to Bangkok for a tournament. Like last year, this year's championship was likely to witness one-sided matches and teams from eastern India - Manipur, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar Tripura and Assam – are expected to figure in the semi-finals.
Manipur will be the worst affected amongst these top four teams in the championship as eleven of their regular players would be doing duty in Bangkok, while Bengal will miss the services of Sujatha Kar, Namita Bag and Rehana Khajun. However, Orissa, finalist last year, has the capability of upsetting both Manipur and Bengal, though Sradhanjali Samantary, who scored ten goals in the last nationals in Kolkata, is away in Bangkok. Six of the eight teams in the quarter-finals last year were from the east zone and Kerala and Maharashtra filled the other two slots. Bureau Report