City sports council to hold hockey tourney from March 9

The Sports Council of Ludhiana will organise the Mahavir Real Estate All India Sahibzada Ajit Singh Hockey Champion Trophy at the Punjab Agricultural University.

The tournament will commence on March 9 and the finals are scheduled for March 14. The six-day tournament with an overall prize money of Rs. 4.25 lakh will feature eight premier teams — Air India (Mumbai), ONGC (Mumbai), Punjab National Bank (New Delhi), Punjab and Sindh Bank (New Delhi), Chandigarh XI, Namdhari XI, Indian Air Force and Indian Army in the men’s category while four teams- Central Railways (Mumbai), Gwalior Academy, Chandigarh XI and Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala) will vie for honours in the women’s category.

Announcing this at a press conference on Wednesday, President of the Sports Council of Ludhiana, Pirthipal Singh Batala also said that the tournament would be played in a league cum knock-out format with the winners in the men’s category earning Rs. 2 lakh, while the runners up will be given Rs. 1 lakh.

Chairman of Sports Council of Ludhiana and former Hockey Olympian, Rajinder Singh added that winners in the women’s category would be given a prize money of Rs. 75,000 and the runners up would get Rs. 50,000.

In a first of its kind, the best player in every match would earn Rs. 1,500. The final and semi-final will be telecast on a National television channel.

At the press conference Hockey Olympians Balbir Singh Grewal, Rajinder Singh and Hardeep Singh Grewal released a book titled Hockey Sitaare Sudhar De,written by Balkar Singh Bajwa.