Nehru hockey begins from Tuesday

New Delhi, Nov 12 (UNI) Twenty one teams, including one from Pakistan, will take part in the 43rd Nehru Hockey tournament which will be held at the Shivaji Stadium here from November 14 to 25.

The tournament, which carried a prize money of Rs 3.80 lakhs, will be played in two phases and 13 teams will play in the first phase on the knock-out basis to pick four teams to join the eight seeded teams in the second phase.

Defending champions Indian Airlines, last year's runners-up Punjab and Sind Bank, Afghan Club (Bahawalpur), BSF (Jalandhar), Punjab Police (Jalandhar), Bharat Petroleum, Namdhari XI and Indian Oil have been seeded directly to the second phase.

The 12 teams in the second phase will be divided into four groups of three teams each and matches willbe played on league basis from November 18.

Two teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals to be played from November 22.

The final is scheduled for November 25.

The winner of the tournament will earn Rs two lakhs while the runners-up and third place finishers will pocket Rs one lakh each.

First Phase fixtures: 1. Air Force XI VS Combined University (Nov 14) 2. CRPF XI VS SAI XI (Nov 14) 3. Western Railway VS Shahdra Heroes (Nov 15) 4. ONGC XI VS Indian Navy (Nov 15) 5. Karnataka XI VS Winner of 1 (Nov 16) 6. South Central Railway VS Winner of 4 (Nov 16) 7. Punjab National Bank VS Winner of 6 (Nov 17) 8. Air India VS Winner of 2 (Nov 17) 9. Army XI VS Winner of 3 (Nov 17) UNI PDS PM RK1900