7s Hockey League to be held in India – A commendable initiative by Hockey India
Hockey India (HI) has initiated an effort to introduce a changed format of hockey, similar to the innovative T20 style that was introduced into cricket.
A seven-a-side event named as 7s Hockey League is planned to be hosted in the second week of June. This event is being organised by a private club called 7Side Club, which originated under Hockey Punjab and HI.
The 7s league will take place in two separate venues, Chandigarh and Jalandhar and will last for twelve days. This newly defined tournament will comprise of a double-leg league format. The event will consist of six teams and each will represent a city in
Punjab, India. All the league matches will be played under floodlights.
To confirm the initiative, a HI official said, "It's a private initiative and only after going through the plan HI gave the green signal. The bidding of the teams will start next months, and subsequently the franchises will name their teams, but it has to
be city based names."
It has been proposed that foreign players shall also feature in this event, with each team comprising of one such player. A total of 72 players will take part in the event, which means that each squad will consist of 12 players.
The players will be divided into five groups, in consideration of their pay scale. The range of pay begins from Rs.2 lakh for foreign appearances, to a lowest of Rs.25,000 for Under-21 participants.
According to HI officials, "Foreign players will get Rs 2 lakh each and every team will have one foreigner. The domestic international players are categorized in three different slabs A, B and C and they will get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000, respectively.
Apart from that 30 junior players (under-21) will get Rs 25,000 and will be allotted equally to all the six franchises."
The 12-day long series will be played under the indoor hockey rules set by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The matches of the upcoming event will not be played over cemented pitches but on outdoor astro-turf surfaces.
In other developments, FIH has also offered India to take part in the next Indoor Hockey World Cup, to be held in 2014. The 7s Hockey League will not just help players to know indoor hockey rules, but also be a source of financial support to them.
The initiative is a positive one, as these players will surely get trained for indoor hockey games with the help of this introductory event.
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