ROURKELA: All India Public Sector Hockey Tournament, organized by the Sports Department of Rourkela Steel Plant, has started at the Biju Patnaik hockey stadium, Rourkela on 4th March. Initially, ten teams had entered the fray but Indian Airlines and Indian Oil Corporation cried off at the last moment. The remaining eight teams have been divided into two groups and two top teams from each group will qualify for the semifinals. The group is as under:

Group-1:- Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Oil & Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), NALCO (Orissa), BSNL.
Group-2:- Air India, Food Corporation of India (FCI), Coal India Limited (CIL), Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd. (NLC)

Balbir Singh, Executive Director (Personnel & Administration) of Rourkela Steel Plant inaugurated the tournament on 4th March at the Biju Patnaik hockey stadium. Former Olympian Michael Kindo is the Tournament Director.

SAIL defeated BSNL 8-1 on the inaugural day. BSNL took the lead in the 5th minute through Sudhir Bhenra’s goal. Shocked but retrieved soon, the SAILers launched repeated attacks and got equalizer in the 20th minute, with Amardeep Ekka scoring. Later the SAILers pumped in seven more goals to brim their kitty. Birendra Lakra, star of the recent Junior Nationals, contributed five goals including a hat trick. His goals came in the 31st, 40th, 57th, 63rd (PC) and 65th minutes. Other two goals were scored by Manoj Lakra in the 45th minute off a penalty corner and Sanjit Kuxur in the 48th minute. Devendra Singh and Syed Akbar of Tamil Nadu umpired the match.

5th March 2008

On second day two matches were played. In group-2 FCI registered a facile victory over NLCL (Tamil Nadu) while FCI beat NLCL 11- 1.

For FCI Parnam Singh scored four goals including a hat trick. He scored goals in the 38th, 50th, 52nd and 55th minutes. Jitender Singh (2 goals in the first and fifth minutes), Surender Singh 2 goals in the fourth and 47th minutes, Maninder Singh 14th minute, Amit Kumar 24th minute and Sudhir Minz 60th minute were the other scorers.

Umpires: H.S. Sokhi and Ravi Lal

In second match played between SAIL and ONGC spectators could see a keenly contested match. SAIL scraped through with s 3-2 victory. For thr SAILers Suman Ekka scored a brace off penalty corners (34th and 59th minutes) and Amardeep Ekka converted a penalty stroke in the 52nd minute. Sundar Singh and Jayanta Metie scored for ONGC in the 48th and 68th minutes, again off penalty corners.

Umpires: Devendra Singh and S. Akbar

6th March-2008

ONGC beat NALCO 6-0. Jayanta Metie (third minute off penalty corner), Vikash Choudhary (seventh minute off penalty corner) Anurag Raghuvanshi (10th minute) KamalDeep Singh (18th and 39th minutes) and R.K. Mishra (63rd –penalty corner) were the scorers for them.

Interestingly, Kamaldeep Singh, the first goal keeper of ONGC played as a forward in this match. Umpires: Ishwar Dutt Kiro and Ravi Lal.

In the second match of the day star studded Air India routed Coal India Limited 13-0. CIL seemed to have been perplexed by the sight of so many Indian players in the rank of Air India, and surrendered from the beginning. Sandeep Singh (4th, 24th and 38th minute), Joga Singh (11th, 17th and 23rd minute), Dilbagh Singh (8th and 13th minute), Birendra Lakra (15th and 20th minute) Girish Pimple (16th minute), Roshan Tete (21st minute), and goal keeper Gurpreet Singh (45th minute) were the scores.

Umpires: H.S. Sokhi and Devendra Singh.