December 30: For the first time 30 international players from seven countries will figure in the third Premier Hockey League which will start next week in Chennai. Some big names from top hockey nations like Australia, Netherlands and Spain have confirmed their participation.Pakistan and Netherlands top the imports with 12 and 8 players respectively scheduled to play in league starting January 4, 2007 in Chennai.

Some of the key names include Jamie Dwyer- the dynamic goal scorer from Australia, Santi Freixa from Spain- the best FIH player and Junior Player of the World, Pakistani Hockey team captain Rehan Butt, Sander van der Weide- a multiple medal winner with the Dutch hockey team among others.

The foreign players have been classified to play in short stints and some of them will play in the Chennai leg of the league and some will join their respective teams for the Chandigarh leg. The Pakistani players will however stay on for a longer duration.

Announcing the names, R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, said, “It was essential to bring in foreign players to give the league, the players and the viewers a competitive and international standard of Hockey in the country. These players will not only raise the standard of the game but also provide an interesting dimension to the viewers. We are on verge of taking the Hockey broadcast to the next level. We realize that there is a strong need to make the game of Hockey more and more viewer friendly.”

S S Dasgupta, Managing Director, Leisure Sports Management, said, “The players have been chosen keeping in mind their skill set and they will be allocated to the seven PHL teams in accord with the need and requirements of each team that will be discussed in consultation with the IHF, the coach and the captain of the team.”

The list of foreign players:
Australia:
Jamie Dwyer’ Brent Livermore
Michael McCann,
Spain:
Santi Freixa,
Ramon Alegre,
Albert Casas,
Malaysia:
Jiwa Mahon,
Chua Boon Huat,
Kelwinder Singh.

Netherlands:
Sander van der Weide, Ceso van der Vliet,
Don Prins, Balder Bomans, Tjeerd Steller,
Sebastiaan Westerhout, Thijs de Greeff,
Timo Bruinsma,
Argentina: Mario Almada

Pakistan:
Adnan Maqsood,
Imran Warsi,
Imran Khan,
Mohammed Khan,
Sajjad Anwar,
Salman Akbar,
Adnan Zakir,
Shakeel Abbasi,
Tariq Aziz,
Rehan Butt,
Ehsan Ullah,
Muhammed Zabair,