2nd Sahibzada Ajit Singh Memorial Champion Trophy from Oct 10-18

 

Ludhiana, August 19, 2012: Second Sahibzada Ajit Singh Hockey Champion Trophy will be organised by Sports Council of Ludhiana at the newly laid Astroturf in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, from October 10-18. This nine-day hockey extravaganza will have the biggest prize money of Rs 8.5 lakh and all matches will be played under flood lights of the PAU Astroturf.

In the second edition of this championship, a total of 12 teams in men category and six from women category will be pitted against each other for total prize money of Rs 8.5 lakh, which is the highest prize money amongst all non- government sponsored tournaments of the country at present.

The matches will be played in league-cum-knockout basis. The winner of men category will get a whopping prize of Rs 3.5 lakh while the runners up will get Rs 2 lakh as prize money.

Similarly in women section, the winner will get a prize money of Rs 2 lakh, followed by Rs 1 lakh for the runners-up team. The winner of women category will also get Prof Nirpjit Kaur Gill Memorial Trophy.

Out of the total prize money of Rs 5.5 lakh for men category, Rs 5 lakh has been sponsored by Municipal Councillor and leading businessman Bhupinder Singh Bhinda alone.

Besides this, a new feature has been added for the promotion of participating hockey players. Best player of every match will be given prize money of Rs 5,000.

Last year, this tournament was held from March 9-14. At that time, eight teams from men category and four from women category had competed against each other for total prize money of Rs 4.25 lakh, which has been increased to Rs 8.5 lakh this time.

Addressing a press conference here today, Pirthipal Singh Batala, president of Sports Council of Ludhiana, said that efforts are being made for the participation of teams from hockey clubs of Pakistan, Canada as well as Malaysia. “These efforts are being made through our Chairman Rajinder Singh, Hockey Olympian and former chief coach of Men national hockey team. He is in touch with teams from these nations and hopefully, these teams will also participate in the second edition of our tournament,” said Pirthipal Singh Batala.

This is the first tournament of the state that will be held on pink and blue coloured Astroturf and that also under flood lights.

Hockey teams from Indian Oil, Punjab National Bank, BPCL, ONGC, Punjab and Sindh Bank, Namdhari XI, Railways, Indian Services, Air India and some others will participate in men category.

Teams such as Western Railways, Northern Railways, Guru Nanak Dev University, Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala, Chandigarh XI, Sonepat XI besides others will compete in women category.

Brand ambassadors for this event are Punjabi singer and actor Harbhajan Mann, singer Satinder Sartaj and singer Kamal Heer.

Among others, Bhupinder Singh Bhinda (Patron), Dr Kulwant Singh (chief organising secretary), JP Singh (Advisor), Pavittar Singh Grewal (Senior VP), Ajaypal Singh Punia (General secretary), Bhupinder Singh Dimple (VP), Gurpreet Singh (Jt Sec), Satwinder Singh Jawaddi (Sr VP), Harminder Singh Grewal (Jt Sec), Dr Darshan Bari (Advisor), Maninder Pal Singh Grewal (Jt Sec) Sukhpal Singh Grewal (Jt Sec) were present.

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