Punjab to celebrate National Sports Day on Aug 29

Jalandhar, Aug 27 (UNI) The Punjab Government has decided to celebrate National Sports Day in memory of Hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand here on August 29.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Punjab Sports Director Pargat Singh informed that the sports department was going to start Punjab Hockey League (Boys under 14, 17 and 19, Girls under 15 and above 15) for the promotion of hockey.

Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal would inaugurate the Hockey League on the National Sports Day, while Sports Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike would preside over the function.

On the occasion, the Chief Minister would distribute sports equipments to nearly 5,000 players of the state.

As many as 100 hockey goal keeper kits, 3,000 hockey sticks and balls, 1,000 fotballs, 500 basketballs and 500 volley balls would be distributed to the sports persons, he said.

An exhibition hockey match had also been arranged on the day between Olympian Prithpal Singh XI and Olympian Udham Singh XI, he added.

He said nearly 110 teams would be participating in the League, which would be completed in five months period as all the teams would play each other on every Saturday and Sunday.

The matches for the girls would be played in Jalandhar whereas for the boys, matches would be played at Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar, he said adding that the idea behind the league was to promote hockey on the national and international level.

UNI