Teams allotted foreign players for Chennai-leg of PHL

New Delhi, Jan 3 (UNI) Sher-E-Jalandhar will have two foreign players in their ranks as against three in the six other teams for the third edition of the Premier Hockey League (PHL) starting tomorrow in Chennai.

The PHL will see participation of 30 foreign players and the Chennai leg will feature 20 of these with the rest of them joining in for the Chandigarh leg of the event, which will have just one division this year -- the 'Premier Division'.

Speaking on the distribution of foreign players among the teams, the Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill said, ''The foreign players were allotted to the teams after a meeting with the coaches of all seven teams. The foreign players were allotted in such a manner that all the teams achieve critical balance.'' The tournament will follow a round-robin format with all the teams playing each other twice. The top two teams from the round robin will play in the 'Best of Three' finals to decide the winner, who will take home Rs 40 lakh as prize money. The runner-up will get Rs 15 lakh.

The foreign players allotted to the teams: Chennai Veerans: Albert Casas (Spain), Ahsan Ullah (Pakistan), Muhammad Zabair (Pakistan) Sher-E-Jalandhar: Don Prins (Netherlands), Imran Khan (Pakistan) Maratha Warriors: Cesco Van Der Vliet (Netherlands), Adnan Maqsood (Pakistan), Imran Warsi (Pakistan) Orissa Steelers: Tjeerd Steller (Netherlands), Salman Akbar (Pakistan), Adnan Zakir (Pakistan) Bangalore Lions: Thijs De Greff (Netherlands), Sander Van Der Weide (Netherlands), Rehan Butt (Pakistan) Chandigarh Dynamos: Balder Bomans (Netherlands), Sajjad Anwar (Pakistan), Timo Bruinsma (Netherlands) Hyderbad Sultans: Sebastian Westernout (Netherlands), Shakeel Abbasi (Pakistan), Tariq Aziz (Pakistan) UNI