Penalty monies given to Fair Play team in the Nehru Cup

Another edition of the Champions Colleges Cup came to an end at the Northern Railway Hockey Stadium in Gwalior, a city 250 kms south of Delhi, with Jalandhar based DAV College defeating the Haridwar by a whopping 7-1 score, on Saturday.

Jaswinder Singh of DAV College, who was Man of the Match yesterday in the semis, again won the honour today, for his hattrick.

As the score board stands by, the proceedings were dull on the turf in contrast to the Friday proceedings. Both the semis played on Friday went down to the wire, the results settled through one-on-one tie-break.

Prof. Manu Sood, manager of the DAV College, was a happy man, as he wanted to teach the losing side a lesson. “They hosted the Inter-University in Haridwar, and we were virtually chased out of the competition due to rogue elements in their campus. Now we got a chance to prove our worth”, said otherwise reclusive Sood.

Haridwar team won the Interuniversity championship in January at home, defeating Punjabi University 4-2.

It was a record Tenth Time for the DAV College team to walk away with the Nehru Champion Colleges Cup out 16 that has gone into the annals.

As was introduced in the previous two Premier Hockey Leagues, the one-on-one tie breaks won the hearts of the spectators. Three out of four quarterfinals and two semis, in all five out of six matches were decided by the new goalkpeer vs forwards duel. Gwalior crowd had sufficient of them.

Though it did not matter much for the teams, levying of Rs.50 for green cards, Rs.100 for yellow card and Rs.500 for red card — this was done to bring better discipline on the turf – was keenly followed by the crowd.

Announcer Kamal Kishore often mentioned the stats of these penalties collected, much to the delight of the crowd. The collected amount, about Rs.4000, has not gone into the kitty of the organizers, Nehru Hockey Tournament Society, but was given to the team that did not get any card at all. Good gesture indeed.

Annamalai university team, that had apprehension in the beginning of the competition that the physical intimidation of some teams hampered their natural play, acknowledged in the latter stages that the umpiring qualities improved then on, and were delighted to win the bronze.

This hardline match was also one-sided affair as the Rourkela based Municipal College team caved in to a 1-5 defeat.

According to Kukoo Walia, the Organizing Secretary, the Madhya Pradesh Women Hockey Academy, extended good support towards successful conduct of the tournament. Local Member of Parliament and former Sports Minister of the State, Yasodaraje Scindia gave away the trophy to DAV College.

The Nehru Society organizes the Cup in Delhi, but had to look for alternative venue this time, as both the turfs in Delhi are under renovation.

Based on the performance of the teams here, All India University Union (AIU) has selected an 18-member team. “This team will participate in the World University Games”, Dr. Gurdeep Singh announced.

The concept of Man of the Match was introduced by the Nehru Society this time, an amount of Rs. 40,000 has thus directly gone into the hands of players.

PRIZE MONEY

1. Winners: — DAV College, Jalandhar — Rs. 96,000/-
2. Runners-up: — Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar — Rs. 56,000/-
3. 3rd Position: — Annamalai University — Rs. 32,000/-
4. Man of the Match: — Lakhwinder Singh of (DAV Jalandhar) — Rs. 10,000/-
5. Coach of Winning Team: — Gundeep Kumar — Rs. 8,000/-
6. Coach of Runners-up Team: — Kapil Mishra — Rs. 5,000/-
7. Coach of 3rd Position Team: — K. Sekar Babu — Rs. 3,000/-