National Hockey at Bhopal
The Senior National Hockey Championship for men, to be organised by Hockey India, will be held in Bhopal from June 10 to 19. Thirty-two teams, affiliated to Hockey India, have confirmed their participation in the championship, which will be played on a league-cum-knockout format.
The matches will be played simultaneously on four artificial pitches at Aish Bagh Stadium, Mayur Park and the Sports Authority of India turfs. Matches will be held under floodlights at the Aish Bagh Stadium and the SAI centre. Hosts Madhya Pradesh will take on Jammu & Kashmir in the opening match on June 10 at the Aish Bagh Stadium.
The teams have been divided into eight pools as under:
Pool A: Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttarakhand; Pool B: Chandigarh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Assam; Pool C: Delhi, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal; Pool D: Air-India, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh; Pool E: Services, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur; Pool F: Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Meghalaya; Pool G: Railways, Combined Universities, Puducherry, Tripura; Pool H: Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar.
During the championship, the Hockey India selectors will select the probables for the next coaching camps for preparation of the Indian team for various international competitions in 2011 and 2012.
The Indian men’s team is slated to compete in the Asian Champions Trophy at Ordos, China, in early September, followed by a Test series and four-nation tournament in Australia in October.
India will then play in the 33rd FIH Men’s Champions Trophy in Delhi in December and also host the 1st Olympic qualifier in Delhi for the London Games, from February 15-26, 2012.