Hockey India League 2017: Schedule announced
New Delhi, 22 November 2016: Defending Champions Jaypee Punjab Warriors’ home ground Chandigarh will host the semifinals and medal matches of the fifth Hockey India League, the schedule of which has been announced. The fifth season of the Coal India Hockey India League (HIL) will be in Jan-Feb next year. Last year this phase was conducted in Ranchi. The fifth edition will commence two months from now and will span over a month, between 21st January to 26th February 2017.
The Coal India HIL has hosted four successful seasons already, and each edition has seen Champions from different cities and franchises indicating a level playing field for the tournament.
The opening game of the 5th edition will be held in Mumbai, between the host team Dabang Mumbai and Ranchi Rays. The match will follow the opening ceremony.
The Finals weekend as is tradition will be hosted at the defending Champions home ground, in this case the Jaypee Punjab Warriors stadium at Chandigarh.
The Coal India HIL 2016 closed bid for the 2017 season took place on the 16th November earlier this month.
Gurbaj Singh was the first player to go in the bid for USD 99,000 to Ranchi Rays. Among the foreign players it was the German forward, Christopher Ruhr who went to Ranchi Rays, securing their second player at USD 75,000. Other notable bids were for Tom Craig (Kalinga Lancers), Robert van der Horst (Jaypee Punjab Warriors) and Seve Van Ass (Uttar Pradesh Wizards).
Over the past two seasons, the Hockey India League has regularly increased the prize money for the tournament, and keeping up with the trend, last year saw the highest purse in hockey with over Rs. 5.8 crores in the pool.
The season will be broadcast live on Star Sports and live streamed on Hotstar.com.