Hockey India League: Deccan Waters bring spring back in the mood

Entry of seventh team in the hugely popular Hockey India League brings back spring in the otherwise sombre trend the commodity experienced in the last two days due to the withdrawal of two franchises, Mumbai Magicians and Ranchi Rhinos.

Hero Hockey India League today announced addition of a new team for the upcoming Jan-Feb 2015 season. Pune will be the new host city, making it the seventh franchise that will compete in the prestigious international event, though reports in the last two days mentioned withdrawals of two entrenched teams.

The Pune franchise has been bought by Anibran Sarkar, owner of the Deccan Water Treatment Pvt. Ltd, with the market valuation about 2000 Cr.

Speaking on the announcement Hockey India Secretary-General and Hero Hockey India League Chairman Dr. Narinder Batra said “We welcome Deccan Water Treatment and Mr. Sarkar as the new franchise for next season’s Hockey India League. These are exciting times for us as a new city will be able to witness the International tournament and the amount of people we will be reaching out too will also be more in number.”

Talking about the growth of the sport in the country he said, “With a new franchise coming in and a company like Deccan Water Treatment contributing to the sport, we are moving in the right direction.”

PUNE Franchise owner Sarkar said: “Having closely and sincerely following the developments of Hockey in our country under the leadership of Dr. Narinder Batra, I was very impressed and felt a need to be a part and contribute to the sport”.

Having a love and passion for Hockey since his school days in Pune, Mr Sarkar says that the city has produced many Hockey Stars for India. “The cradle for Hockey in India has seen stars like Baboo Nimal, Joseph Philips, Dhanraj Pillay, Vikram Pillay and many International and national players and I too grew up like many other Pune boys playing for my school in interschool and Zilla parishad matches with borrowed hockey sticks from friends. Buying the Pune franchise is the just the beginning for a larger and better future for the sport in the country.”

Deccan Water Treatment Pvt. Ltd. is the pioneer in the manufacturing of RO systems for Drinking water specialized for desalination and arsenic removal by reverse osmosis process. Backed by the most modern technology they provide a solution to all water treatment problems under one roof and also have diversified into Solar Energy in 2010. The company has not restricted to a single sector or region as their aim is to reach the remotest of villages for provision of Drinking water and efficient treatment of waste water and its recycling.