Money-spinning World Series Hockey to grace colours in December
After a lot of controversies and disputations, at last the lucrative World Series Hockey (WSH) has formally been launched on Thursday, which is enough to spread joys over the faces of hockey lovers across the earth.
International Hockey Federation (FIH), the world’s hockey governing body, withdrew from its stance in which it declared the annual league as an unofficial and illegal. The federation through a written letter permitted all the hockey players, who inked the
agreements with the WSH on or ahead of March 31, 2011, to take part in the lavish style of hockey league.
It is vital to mention here that the WSH is a joint-venture project of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and Nimbus Communication on the lines of the famous cricket event India Premier League (IPL). It is a project which will not only entertain the spectators
across the globe, but also pay off the players in the head of heavy amounts.
It is vital to mention here that some of great hockey stars from India inked contracts with the well-paid hockey league. A few of the best names are Sandeep Singh, Sardara Singh, Arjun Halappa, Prabhjot Singh and Adrian D’Souza, who attended the opening
ceremony by missing national training camp.
Harish Thawani, the Executive Chairman of the Nimbus Communication while speaking to the media at the launching ceremony, said that the FIH in writing had stated that they would not make an interference with players contracted for the mega league.
He stated, “We had a meeting recently with Leandro Negre, the president of the FIH, when he gave it to us in writing that the world body will not interfere with players contracted on or before March 31. We were not happy with the cut-off date but since we
had already signed all our players before the given date, we did not find it necessary to take up the issue.”
The event will be played among franchise-based eight teams comprised of a total of 176 players. Interestingly, each hockey line-up will be comprised of 21 players of which only five will be from abroad.
The 61-match event is scheduled to be held from December 15, 2011 to January 22, 2012 in eight different cities of India. Among the total 176 players, 40 will be hailed from abroad, while 136 will be from India including national and international names.
There will be 56 games in the league while the remaining five play-offs, including the semi-final and grand finale. Every squad will play 14 games during the league.
Thawani further stated that the format of the event would assist to make it a successful event, as the Premier Hockey League (PHL) was in the past.
Six out total eight venues have been finalised including New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Mumbai. These cities have been chosen for the money-spinning event due to deep roots of sports. The remaining two venues will be finalised from
Manipur, Bhopal, Lucknow, Pune, Kolkata and Rourkela.
In the opening ceremony, the skippers of the eight franchised-based teams have also been announced. Amazingly, Sardara Singh, Arjun Halappa, Prabhjot Singh and Adrian D’Souza will head the four teams out of total eight. Apart from these, Rehan Butt from
Pakistan, Lucas Vila from Argentina, Garza Barbero from Spain and Brent Livermore from Australia will lead the other four teams. It is vital to write it here that the players would be picked up on lines of thee on lines of IPL style through an open auction.
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