65th All India Obaidullah Gold Cup sets off in Bhopal, first match ends in a goal-less draw: Hockey News
The 65th edition of the All India Obaidullah Gold Cup Hockey Tournament was inaugurated with a match between Sapura Club of Malaysia and Namdhari XI of Punjab on May 24 that was held at the Aishbagh Stadium in Bhopal, India, which ended in a goal-less
draw.
A total of 12 different teams have taken part in this tournament that comprise of 10 domestic clubs from within India, whereas two visiting club teams from Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The match was played with a lot of intensity with six penalty corners awarded to the Punjab side, whereas two penalty corners to Sapura during the first half, but no player succeeded in converting these potential goal opportunities.
The second half also passed with no team being able to open up a score and the match concluded as a scoreless draw at 0-0.
In spite of the fact that no scores were netted, there was a tremendous battle fought between the two teams that reflected a tough competition between them.
At the end of the match, the Punjabian Gurmail Singh of the Namdhari XI was honoured as the player of the match award.
The competition is expected to continue until May 30. Apart from the above two teams, the other participant teams are Air India, Madhya Pradesh State Hockey Academy, Punjab Police, Punjab National Bank, BPCL, IOC, ONGC, Indian Railways and Bangladesh.
The winning prize-money included INR500,000 for the winning team and INR200,000 for the runner-up.
At the first day, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister of the state, revealed that the prize-money has been revised to almost double the amount stated before. The winning team will be getting a prize-purse worth INR 1.1 million. Moreover, he announced
that the runner-up prize shall also be raised similar to this and also for the third and fourth position takers.
Meanwhile, the Bihar Hockey Association (BHA) has asked the district hockey set-ups to send their recommended players into the trials that are announced to be held on May 29. This selection is being made for setting up an Under-17 Bihar men’s hockey team
that will be taking part in the upcoming U-17 Indian National Hockey Championship.
The trials have been scheduled to be held in Patna. Despite the fact that the championship will set-off prior to this selection trial in Mumbai from May 27-June 8, however, Bihar is to show its presence on June 1 on its first match.
According to the BHA’s President, Danish Heyat Khan, the players will be bringing in their birth certificates along with them and will report to the selection committee chairman, Anjani Kumar, who will assess their qualification for the event. The players
who are born after January 1 of 1994 will be allowed to play the junior championship.
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