Star studded IOCL look to retain crown

India’s elite hockey players, including India captain Rajpal Singh, will be in action when the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board Inter-unit hockey tournament kicks off at the Karnataka State Hockey Association stadium from Monday.

“This is a big tournament for everyone involved, especially the players. For them these matches are extremely important and the tournament will be highly competitive,” Rajesh Yadav, chief administrative manager of Indian Oil, the hosts of the five-day tournament, said.

Of the six teams involved in the tournament, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, the winners of last year’s edition in Chandigarh, Bharath Petroleum Corporation Ltd, and Engineers India Ltd are in Group A while Oil and Natural Gas Commission, last year’s runners-up, Gas Authority of India Ltd and Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd are in Group B.

Along with Rajpal, internationals Baljit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh will play for IOCL while the likes of Tushar Khandkar and Sabu Varkey will wear the colours of BPCL. ONGC will be boosted by Harpal Singh, Gurvinder Chandi and Vikas Topo.

“IOCL, ONGC and BPCL will be the top teams in the tournament and these teams will be expected to fight it out for the title,” Yadav said.

The first two teams in each group will qualify for the semifinals which will be played on Thursday, with the final scheduled for Friday.

“Matches will be played at 2.00 and 4.00 pm”, secretary of the KSHA, Krishnamurthy, said.