Innovation, increased prize money add sheen to PHL III

New Delhi, Nov 10: Increased prize money, larger foreign participation and innovations will add gloss to the third edition of the Premier Hockey League scheduled to begin in January next year.

Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) President today announced the names of the Indian players who would represent seven teams in the hockey extravaganza and declared the names of the captains.

Devesh Chauhan (Hyderabad Sultans), Dilip Tirkey (Orissa Steelers), Kanwalpreet Singh (Sher-e-Jalandhar), Viren Rasquinha (Maratha Warrior), Arjun Halappa (Bangalore Lions), Adam Sinclair (Chennai Veerans) and Rajpal Singh (Chandigarh Dynamos) will don the captain's armband, Mr Gill announced.

''We would pick up three more Indian players afrer conclusion of ongoing tournaments like Nehru and Surjit Memorial hockey tournaments,'' Mr Gill said.

Each of the seven teams would have three players each in their ranks and IHF was in the final stage of negotiating the matter, he added.

Managing Director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd RC Venkateish announced the hike in prize money and said the winning team would pocket Rs 40 lakh, while the runners up would be richer by Rs 15 lakh. The amounts were Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh in the last editions.

Besides, he said, PHL III would also see the introduction of a ''one-on-one'' innovation which would replace the traditional penalty shoot-out.

''After extra times fail to yield any result, we would have a new penalty shoot-out where a player would start with the ball from the 25 yard line and would have eight seconds to score. Within that time, he can dribble past the goalkeeper or can also score from a rebound. That would make the whole thing much more intersting,'' he explained.

''Besides, we would continue with the previous innovations of third umpire and mobile mikes to the on-field referees,'' he added.

Hailing the new add-ons, SS Dasgupta of Leisure Sports Management said IHF has been pioneer when it came to innovations.

''International Hockey Federation (FIH) took the cue from PHL and tried the third umpire concept, while having four quarters, instead of two halves, was also aped,'' he said.

Teams: Sher-e-Jalandhar: Kanwalpreet Singh (c) Maninder Singh, Kamaldeep Singh, Harpal Singh, Baljit Singh Saini, Prabhdeep Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Gagan Ajit Singh, Devenderpal Singh, Jarnail Singh, Parminder Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Devender Singh, Tejbir Singh. Coach -- Balwinder Singh Sami.

Chandigarh Dynamos: Rajpal Singh (c), Baljit Singh, Swinder Singh, Jugraj Singh, Gurdeep Singh/Sandeep Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Prabhjot Singh, SS Gill, Deepak Thakur, Inderjit Chadha, Ravi Pal, Navdeep Singh, Sher Singh, Irshad Ali, Mandeep Singh. Coach -- NS Sodhi.

Orissa Steelers: Dilip Tirkey (c), Dinesh Ekka, William Xalxo, Jitender Saroha, Bimal Lakra, Jasbir Singh, Sandeep Sethi, Virender Lakra, Bikash Toppo, Sunil Ekka, Roshan Minz, Bruno H Lugun, Daman Deep Singh, Sanjay Yadav. Coach -- AK Bansal.

Hyderabad Sultans: Devesh Chauhan (c), Pekrelo, Saranjeet Singh, Harpreet Singh, Nitin Kumar, Vikrap Pillay, Johnson Ekka, Didar Singh, Ajitesh Rai, Sardara Singh, Amar Ayamma, Diwakar Ram, Rajinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Baljit Singh Chandi. Coach- Mukesh Kumar Maratha Warriors: Viren Rasquinha (c), Adrian D'Souza, Gurpreet Singh, Anurag Raghuvanshi, Kuldeep Singh, Ajmer Singh, Gurbaaj Singh, Dhananjay Mahadhik, Gaurav Tokhi, Conroy Remedios, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Hemant Gethe, Stanley Fernandes, Bharat Kumar, Shivender Singh. Coach-- Mukul Pandey.

Bangalore Lions: Arjun Halappa (c), Bharat Chhetri, PT Rao, Ajay Saroha, Len Aiyappa, Bikramjit Singh, VS Vinay, Ignace Tirkey, Gurpreet Singh, Hari Prasad, Tushar Khandekar, Sabhu Varkey, Laxman Rao, Sandeep Michael. Coach- Ramesh Parmeshwaran.

Chennai Veerans: Adam Sinclair(c), PR Sreejesh, Shamnugasundaram, Muthuselvan, Raghunath, Sivabalan, Baljinder Singh, Senthil, Sunil Yadav, Vikram Kanth, Rehman, V Raja, Pramod Kumar. Coach-- Md Riaz.

UNI