The
much-awaited Premier Hockey League, which will feature
almost all the leading players of the country as well as
internationals from Pakistan, South Korea and Spain, will
kick-off in Hyderabad on January 13, 2005.
Announcing the
names of captains for the top tier of the event, to be held
at Gochibowli Stadium, Indian Hockey Federation president K
P S Gill said negotiations are on with 17 foreign players to
play alongside their Indian counterparts in the month-long
competition.
"We have been
discussing about the hockey league for the last three years
and now it has been more or less finalised. The first year
it will be held in Hyderabad and subsequently it will be
extended to other parts of the country," said Gill in Delhi
on Wednesday.
"So far 17
international players have expressed their keenness to play
in the league. But it's premature to name them as it is
still in the negotiation stage."
The format of
the PHL has ten teams divided into two tiers, each having
"interesting names to catch the attention of hockey lovers".
Tier I will
be called the Premier Division while Tier II will be known
as the First Division. The league will follow a round-robin
format with all teams playing each other twice. The champion
will be determined on the basis of total points culled from
the matches.
The Tier I
teams are Sher-e-Jallandhar, Maratha Warriors (Mumbai),
Chennai Veerans, Hyderabad Sultans and Bangalore
High-Fliers.
The teams
will be captained by Gagan Ajit Singh, Viren Rasqunha,
Ignace Tirkey, Dilip Tirkey and Arjun Halappa respectively.
The Tier II
teams, whose captains are yet to be named, are Delhi
Dazzlers, Lucknow Nawabs, Imphal Rangers, Bengal Tigers and
Chandigarh Dynamos.
ESPN-STAR
Sports will telecast live the league for the next ten years.
Innovations
have been made in the PHL to increase viewer interest in the
game. A game will have four quarters of 17 minutes and 30
seconds instead of the two halves. The concept of time-outs
will be introduced to liven up the game. Victory in the
stipulated time will fetch three points while the team
winning in extra-time will get two points and the loser one.
The winner of
Tier I will get Rs 30 lakh (3 million) while the runner-up
will get Rs 10 lakh (one million) .
The Tier II
winner will get Rs 400,000 while the runner-up Rs 250,000.
(photo:
Tirkey, who will captain the
Hyderabad Sultans)
(article reprinted from Rediff.com)
