Vidarbha Hockey Association has made all the necessary arrangements and is ready to host the 1st VHA-Nagpur All India Gold Cup Hockey Tournament at its Amravati Road ground. The tournament will be held under the auspices of Hockey India. The two lush green grounds are heavily rolled and marked properly for the April 20 opener. Top teams from all over the country will be taking part in the tournament which carries a total prize money of Rs 1.75 lakh.
The winner of the tournament will be richer by Rs One lakh while the runners-up team will pocked Rs 50,000. The third placed team will have to satisfy with a purse of Rs 25,000. Three glittering trophies will also be given to the podium finishers.
The teams will start arriving from Friday.
The tournament will be inaugurated by Shri GB Indurkar, Additional Commissioner, Sales Tax, Nagpur Zone on April 20 at 7.30 am. Shri DC Garg, CMD, Western Coalfields Limited, Nagpur will be the guest of honour.
VHA President BC Bhartia, Secretary, Vinod Gawai, Treasurer Ghanshyam Purohit, Joint Secretary Bhaskar Naidu and all executive members of VHA will remain present.
The tournament will be played as per FIH Rules and organising committee’s decision will be final and binding to all teams.
Meanwhile. Central Railway Headquarters, Mumbai pulled out of the tournament at the last minute citing poor show at the recently held All India inter-railway tournament. A top team from Rajnandgaon replaced the Mumbai team.
Other teams taking part in the meet are Chennai XI, Range Police Nagpur, Northern Railways from Lucknow, Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy (Bhopal), Pomposh from Rourkela, South Central Railway from Secundrabad, Divakar Hockey Academy from Katni (MP), Sports Authority of India from Sundergarh (Orissa) Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), from Bhilai, DHA, Akola, DHA, Jalgaon, DHA, Gondia, DHA Aurangabad and DHA Chandrapur. VHA Senior Division Champions, South East Central Railway, runners-up Dhyanchand Academy and Eagle Sporting will also be taking part in this prestigious tournament.
Hockey India’s Ashutosh Verma has been appointed as the Tournament Director. Virendra Singh will be the Umpires’ Manager.
Other officials include Mohd Fahim, Danny Kinny, Avinash Shiranpelly, Bhushan Sao, G Harsha Vardhan, Gyanchand Jain, Dhaval Prajapati, Mohd Javed, Feeroz Dad, Umesh Bhine, Arnold Xavier, Sadiq Shaikh, informs a release from Vinod Gawai, Secretary, VHA. Similarly, city’s six national as well as state-level umpires would also officiate in the tournament. Rajesh Bihari, who was the Tournament Director of the recently held Inter-Railway Hockey Tournament, at Kapurthala, Ravi Francis, Satish Fulsunge, Virendra Baghel, Shahid Sheikh and Rajkumar Jha will also be officiating in the tournament.
