Balwant Singh hockey tourney to kick off today

Jalandhar January 14

The 16th All India Balwant Singh Kapur Hockey Tournament (boys under-19) will be held between January 15 and January 22 at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium here.

The general secretary of the tournament committee, Gundeep Singh Kapur, said that 12 renowned school teams from across the country would participate in the tournament.

He said that the winning team of the tournament would be awarded Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and the Mata Prakash Kaur Cup. He said that earlier this prize money was Rs 1.25 lakh which has now been increased. The runner-up team will be awarded one lakh rupees in cash and a trophy.

Likewise, the third place team will be awarded Rs 80,000, earlier the amount was Rs 60,000. The fourth place team will be given Rs 60,000.

Besides, the Harmohinder Kaur Memorial Trophy will be awarded to the team that shows fair play during the tournament.

Also, six best players will be selected and these six players will be given a cash prize of ten thousand rupees each.

Olympian Ajitpal Singh (the captain of the 1975 World Cup winning Indian hockey team) will be the head of the selection committee formed for the selection of these players. This tournament will be conducted under the supervision of referees or officials sent by Hockey India. The tournament director will be Harinder Singh Sangha while Olympian Sanjeev Kumar will be the chief observer. The tournament will be inaugurated by Kalgidhar Trust Baru Sahib President Baba Dr Davinder Singh on January 15 and DAV College Jalandhar Principal Dr Rajesh Kumar will be the Guest of Honour.

Teams participating in the tournament include Surjit Hockey Academy Jalandhar, Grass Root Academy Pune, PIS Ludhiana, Chandigarh Academy, Har Academy Sonipat, Sai Patiala, Naval Tata Academy Jamshedpur, PIS Mohali, Flickr Hockey Academy Shahbad Markanda, SGPC Academy Amritsar, Round Glass Hockey Academy, MEG Bangalore included.