News for 01 September 2016
All the news for Thursday 1 September 2016
Five USA Umpires Appointed to FIH Hockey World League Round 1 Tournaments
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As the next cycle of qualifications begins for the 2018 Hockey World Cup, USA Field Hockey is proud of our umpires and technical staff that have been appointed to various FIH Hockey World League Round 1 (HWL Round 1) tournaments around the globe.
“It is very important that we at USA Field Hockey are an integral part of the international umpiring community as we continue to stay on the cutting edge of the game," Steve Horgan, USA Field Hockey's Directory of Umpiring. "We are so proud of all of our umpires but especially out international umpires who have made the huge commitment and dedicated a large part of their lives to umpiring and representing USA Field Hockey.”
On the women’s side, Maggie Giddens (Brooklyn, N.Y.) will umpire at the HWL Round 1 event in Salamanca, Mexico from September 27 to October 2. She will be accompanied on the men's side by Ridge Bair (Virginia Beach, Va.) who will umpire his first international tournament and Mike Lipka (Moorpark, Calif.) who will be a judge on the technical staff for the event. In addition to the Mexico appointments, Gus Soteriades (Hilliard, Ohio) and Mary Driscoll (Palmyra, Pa.) have both been appointed to the HWL Round 1 tournament in Chiclayo, Peru in early October.
Outside of the FIH Hockey World League qualifying system, USA also has other umpires making an impact in the international hockey world before the end of 2016. Grant Hundley (Columbus, Ohio) will be umpiring at a 6 Nation Invitational Tournament in October in Valencia, Spain. Traveling to Santiago, Suzi Sutton (Evanston, Ill.) will be umpiring at the women's hockey Junior World Cup 2016 that will take place November 23 to December 4. Both Grant and Suzi have made great strides in their umpiring careers recently and USA Field Hockey looks forward to their continued success.
As all of these individuals work hard to continue to improve their game, USA Field Hockey wishes the U.S. technical staff the best of luck as they represent the country on the international stage.
USFHA media release
MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup from Sept 1
Top teams to fight for 5 Lakhs prize money
BY S.THYAGARAJAN
Competitive hockey of quality and content, apart from a degree of appreciable variety, will be on view when the annual MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup tournament goes on stage on Thursday (September 1) at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
Acknowledged as one of the few prestigious hockey events in the country and organized with an enviable element of proficiency, this competition provides a delightful fare to the aficionados of this city.
The 90th edition will be no exception given the stature of the teams in the fray for this year’s competition.
The features of the tournament were explained in detail at a Press Conference on Tuesday at the Madras Cricket Club.
Welcoming the gathering, Srivatsan Subramanian, President, MCC, expressed his happiness to be associated with the Murugappa Group in supporting the tournament. He underlined the fact that MCC was the only club in the country to be part of a tournament of this magnitude.
Speaking on behalf of the main sponsor, the Murugappa Group, whose contribution to the growth of sport, especially hockey, that needs no overemphasis here, Mr. Arun Murugappan, Managing Director, Parry’s, announced the substantial increase in the prize money for the winner to five Lakhs from 2.5, and to Rs. 2.5 lakhs for the runner up from 1.5. He also spoke of the other prizes for the players.
Arun Murugappan also made a fervent plea to the media to accord greater prominence to hockey, which he described as the national sport, and also pointed out the improved show of the national teams in international competitions, including the recent Olympics at Rio.
Mr. C.N.Shanmugam Organizing Secretary, gave out the details of the tournament while Mr. B.Vijaykumar, Treasurer, MCC, proposed a vote of thanks.
Ten top teams headed by the defending champion, IOC, will be in action during the competition, which ends with the final on September 11. The event will be played on a league-cum-knock out basis with the two top teams in each pool figuring in semifinals.
Interestingly, Tamil Nadu will be fielding a state team under the banner of the Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUT). It will take on Air India in its opening match on September 1 in Pool A.
Manish N Gour has been nominated as the Tournament Director. One match will be played under floodlights every day.
The following are the Pools:
A: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), Air India, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUT), and Mumbai HA.
B: Army XI (runner up), Punjab National Bank (PSB),Oil & Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Hockey Karnataka and Indian Railways.
The tournament begins on Wednesday with the traditional opening match between MCC and The Hindu Group at 6 p.m.
Fieldhockey.com
MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup from today
Five players — Manpreet Singh, S.V. Sunil, Devinder Walmiki (all BPCL), Ramandeep Singh (Punjab & Sind Bank) and V.R. Raghunath (IOC) — who were all part of the Indian men’s team at the Rio Olympics, will be the star attractions in the all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament, beginning on Thursday.
Tushar Khandekar, who is the assistant coach of the Indian men’s team, will play for BPCL.
The tournament director, Manish N. Gour, said it would be played in two halves of 35 minutes each and not four quarters of 15 minutes each. “Except the senior National championships, the rest of the domestic tournaments in India will have to be played in 70-minute duration.
“Only the global events will be played in four quarters. We are strictly going by FIH (International body) regulations,” he said.
Earlier, in an exhibition match, Rohit Kuttappa’s hat-trick helped MCC defeat The Hindu 4-2.
The result: MCC 4 (Rohit Kuttappa 3, Iqbal Sait 1) bt The Hindu 2 (M. Raja, K. Balaji).
The Hindu
Raghunath, Sunil may play in Murugappa Gold Cup
Olympic stars V.R. Raghunath, S.V. Sunil may take part in the 90th edition of the All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament to be held at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here from September 1 to 11. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is the defending champion.
Originally started in 1901 as Madras Challenge Cup and later named AMM Arunachalam Challenge Cup, the tournament has gone through several changes, but the popularity and enthusiasm among the fans have not waned.
Speaking at a press meet here on Tuesday, Arun Murugappan, tournament sponsor, thanked the fans for their continued support.
This edition will have Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, which performed well in the Senior National championships, instead of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB). The organisers said the bank team’s performance was “poor” last year and hence the decision.
The tournament, to be played on a league-cum-knock-out basis, will have 10 teams split into two groups.
The top two teams from each group will make the semifinals.
The winner will take home Rs. 5 lakh and the runner-up Rs. 2.5 lakh.
Manish N. Gour will be the Tournament Director.
In an exhibition match, MCC will take on The Hindu XI on August 31.
Groupings: Pool-A: IOC, BPCL, Air India, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, Mumbai Hockey Association.
Pool-B: Army XI, Punjab National Bank (PNB), ONGC, Hockey Karnataka, Indian Railways.
The Hindu
Sreejesh takes HUTN’s decision in his stride
P.R. Sreejesh. Photo: K. Murali Kumar
: Did the Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN) err in not picking the Indian captain and goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh for the all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament beginning on Thursday, especially when he had shown keen interest in playing for the State?
Sreejesh quit his job with Indian Overseas Bank (Chennai) last year after he got a job with the Kerala Government. Though he is not based in Chennai anymore, the 28-year-old continues to be a registered player of Tamil Nadu.
In fact, Sreejesh had booked a ticket to Chennai to play in the tournament, when he was informed that he was not part of the team. There, surely, seems to be a lack of communication somewhere in the link.
Sreejesh, however, has taken the decision of HUTN in his stride.
Speaking to The Hindu on Wednesday, he said “it doesn’t matter now. They (HUTN) wanted to give a chance to the youngsters, it is fine with me,” he said.
Rupinderpal Singh, India’s penalty corner specialist, said though he was keen to play for the State in the Murugappa Gold Cup, he wouldn’t have been able to come to the city to play as dates of his graduation exams are clashing with that of the tournament’s.
“At this point in time, my exams are more important for me,” he told The Hindu from Punjab.
Meanwhile, HUTN announced that Gnanavel will lead the Tamil Nadu team.
The team: Goalkeepers: Arun Prasad, Manikandan. Defenders: A. Aravindan, Nambi Ganesh. Midfielders: Niranjan Saiganesh, Judson, Raghuram, Selva Kumar, Sunil Murthy, Deepa Ganesh. Forwards: Shanmugam, Dhamu, Hashan Basha, Veerathamizhan, Silver Stalin, Joshuva Bentick, Surrender. Stand-byes: Midfielder: Rajkumar. Forwards: John, Goutham. Goalkeeper: Vineeth.
Coach: M. Raja. Coach & Manager: Rajkumar. Expert coach: Md. Riaz.
The Hindu
More than 30 international players to participate in Pakistan Hockey League
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has said said that more than 30 international players are likely to participate in the inaugural edition of country's franchise-based Professional League to be staged in November.
A PHF official was quoted as saying Wednesday that players from five to ten countries would be participating in the league.
"The most likely countries' players to participate in the league are from Argentina, Germany, New Zealand and Australia," he said. "The event will be staged in Lahore, Faisalabad and Gojra. Now, we are waiting for permission from the Punjab Government and for that we have already written a letter to them. We require an NOC from the Punjab Government to invite foreign players here," he added.
The PHF official said they were making all-out efforts to initiate Pakistan's first league before the end of this year and were making contacts with players of different hockey playing nations.
"Besides providing financial support to us, the league will prove a landmark in regaining the lost glory of the national game. We are sure it will help rebuild our supremacy in the game internationally," he maintained. He said that since Pakistan were not performing well in the international arena, the league would therefore increase the domestic players' confidence by playing with foreigners.
"There would be at least five to six teams of different cities including foreign players."
Responding to a question, he said Indian players would not be invited for the league.
"National training camps of national Under-18, senior women and senior men's team are currently underway in Islamabad and Lahore. "We are working on U-18 players in order to groom them for future and they would be sent to participate in international tournaments annually," he concluded.
The Daily Times
All-Pakistan FJ Women’s Gold Cup Hockey
MULTAN: The 4th All-Pakistan Fatima Jinnah Women's Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, to be organised by the District Hockey Association, will commence at District Sports Ground here from October 23.
District Hockey Association President Ayyub Ghallo said that women hockey teams from across the country including four provinces, federal teams, Higher Education Commission (HEC), WAPDA, Railways, Pakistan Army, Punjab University and other teams would take part in the event.
He also informed that the inaugural All Punjab Inter-Region Men's Abdul-Sattar Edhi Gold Cup Hockey Tournament would be played in the first week of November with four regional teams including Multan, Khanewal, Vehari and Lodhran participating in the tournament.
The tournament will be played at the same venue: District Sports Ground.
The Daily Times