Technical people assemble to discuss conduct of the Cup

Its for the first time in the southern part of India, an exclusive private High Performance Hockey Centre will be set up in Chennai by the well-known educational institution Sri Ramchandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (deemed University), Chennai. Interestingly and fittingly, it is named after hockey hero V Baskaran. 

The much-awaited Centre will be inaugurated by Dr.Narinder Dhruv Batra, who wears many hats in the contemporary Indian sports scene. The first-ever non-European President of the Federation Internationale de Hockey (FIH), will be in Chennai next week to preside over the Shri NPV Ramasamy Udayar Hockey Cup on April 9th.

Sri Ramchandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (deemed University), Chennai is hosting the tournament from March 29 to April 9, 2021.

This will be 12-day hockey extravaganza with 12 teams vying for the title.

Its nice to see the event attracted as many as a dozen teams who will vie for top honours in a league-cum-knockout competition on the newly laid artificial surface at the university campus in Chennai.

Vasudeva Baskaran, Director of Hockey at the Centre for Sports Science (CSS) and captain of the gold medal India team at the 1980 Moscow Olympics is the organizing secretary with Moghul Mohammed Muneer of the FIH World Panel and Pro League Technical Official as Techincal Director.

Besides the winners’ trophy, there would be cash prizes as well going to the runners-up and best player of the tournament.

If the social media response is any indication, the tournament has already evoked enormous response. Now it is hoped the sports promoting and hockey loving University community of players, staff and public will witness a quality stuff on the turf.

The teams in the tournament are split into two pools as follows:

Pool A: Indian Overseas Bank, Southern Railway, Sports Hostel of Excellence, SDAT, Loyola College, St Paul’s Combined XI, Challengers Hockey.

Pool B: Integral Coach Factory, GST, Chennai, Indian Bank, SRM Institute, Chennai Hockey U-21, Tamil Nadu Postal Hockey.

It seems a happy 12-days for Chennai hockey, which has a rich tradition of the sport.