Star-studded hockey camp in city from tomorrow

In what could bring the city back on the national hockey map after a gap of around eight years, the Hockey India League (HIL) franchisee — JSW Soorma Hockey Club — is going to host their 10-day preparatory camp at the Sector 42 Sports Complex from December 12.

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The revamped league is scheduled to start from December 28, and it is for the first time after 2015-16 a team is conducting a preparatory camp here. The Soorma Hockey Club team will play under the captaincy of Indian skipper and double Olympic bronze medallist Haramanpreet Singh, who will be also here for the camp.

The 2024-25 edition of the HIL will feature two stages. In Phase 1, running from December 28 to January 18, all teams will face-off once. Phase II will begin on January 19, with the teams divided into two pools. The club will compete with Delhi SG Pipers, Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers and Vedanta Kalinga Lancers in the Pool A.

Not only Haramanpreet, who is fondly known as ‘Sarpanch’ among the Indian hockey fraternity, other Indian star players, including Olympian Gurjant Singh, Gurinder Singh and Maninder Singh, along with international stars South African striker Dayaan Cassiem, Belgium’s Olympian goalie Vincent Vanasch, Nicolas Poncelet and Victor Wegnez, Australia’s Jeremy Hayward, Dutch strikers Boris Burkhardt and Jonas de Gues, and Argentinean midfielder Nicolas Della Torre will also join the Soorma squad for the camp. Last month, former Indian midfielder Sardar Singh had joined the squad as mentor. At the HIL auction, Soorma Hockey Club bought Indian skipper Harmanpreet for a whopping Rs 78 lakh.

“The team will unveil their official logo on December 11, followed by the formal starting of the camp from December 12. The team is likely to attend two practice sessions each day, during their stay in Chandigarh,” said a source.

Meanwhile, the management will also be assessing the facilities here in order to bid for hosting HIL matches in the city. Besides hosting the Premier Hockey League (PHL) matches and a few fixtures of the HIL in 2015-16, the stadium had recently hosted a national sub-junior hockey meet.