Jaypee Punjab Warriors to shift base next season
IANS
NEW DELHI: Jaypee Punjab Warriors will be shifting their base from Jalandhar to Mohali from the next season of the Hockey Indian League (HIL) for logistical reasons.
Askari Zaidi, senior vice-president Jaypee Group, said on Saturday that Mohali will be their next home. Mohali is also the home of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kings XI Punjab.
“We will be shifting base next year due to logistical reasons. Mohali will be our next home. We have a great stadium coming up in Mohali that is being built by the state government. It will have a blue turf,” said Zaidi.
Zaidi said Jaypee will have to bear huge travelling costs in the first season since Jalandhar is not well connected with all major cities.
“Jalandhar is not connected well with other cities. The nearest airport is Amritsar and it is also 80-85 kms away. But Mohali has good air connectivity,” he said.
Hockey India (HI) secretary general Narinder Batra said that Mohali was the first choice of cities for the league but since the stadium was not ready it was replaced by Jalandhar.
“Mohali was among the 13 cities shortlisted for the league. But due to unavailability of stadiums we had to replace it with Jalandhar,” said Batra.
Jalandhar has been the hub of Indian hockey for more than a century. The Sansarpur village in the district of Jalandhar has the distinction of producing most number of hockey Olympians.