Bangalore Lions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| BANGALORE LIONS | |
| League | Premier Hockey League |
| Tier | First Division |
| Home City | Bangalore |
| Official Sponsor | ING Vysya |
| Colours | Orange, Blue and White |
| Best Season | 2006 - Champions |
| Head coach | Ramesh Parameswaran |
| Captian | Arjun Halappa |
 |
|
The Bangalore Lions are the Premier Hockey League(PHL) team from the IT Hub of the country Bangalore, Karnataka. They are the trend setters in PHL. The team is led by Olympian Arjun Halappa a member of Indian Hockey team.
The Bangalore Lions have finished third in Premier Hockey League 2007 (PHL 2007).
The Bangalore Lions were the Champions of Premier Hockey League 2006 (PHL 2006) held in Chandigarh. They defeated Chandigarh Dynamos in a best of three finals. The Champions walked away with Rs.30 lakhs prize. Bangalore Lions drag-flick specialist Len Aiyappa was the top-scorer of the PHL 2006, with eight goals. He was rewarded with prize amount of Rs.1 lakh.
Contents |
[edit] Official Sponsor
The ING Vysya Life Insurance is the official team sponsor of Bangalore Lions
[edit] Name Change
The Bangalore Lions were earlier known as Bangalore Hi-Fliers in the first edition of PHL. The first edition of PHL was held at Hyderabad in 2005. In 2006 the name change proved lucky as Bangalore Lions won the PHL championship. In the first edition Mudassar ali Khan Pakistan & Kuhan Shanmuganathan Malaysia were the foreign players included. In the second edition Rehan Butt Pakistan & Jordi Quintana Spain were the foreign players included.
[edit] PHL 2007
Bangalore Lions went into PHL 2007 as the defending champions, but it failed to retain the championship and have finished third this season. With the new format and changes in place for PHL 2007, Bangalore Lions started of with a bang in Phase I at Chennai by winning 3 out of first four matches. From there on, long breaks, injuries and so on stopped their victory march. However they came back strongly to finish third at end of Phase II in Chandigarh
[edit] Brand Ambassador
PHL 2007 promoters have roped in different celebrities as Brand Ambassadors for different teams to make the event more popular and to reach the people. Prakash Padukone, Former India No.1 and an ace Badminton player from Karnataka is the Brand Ambassador of Bangalore Lions.
[edit] Team Lineup
[edit] Players
Bangalore Lions have retained majority of their players from its 2006 championship winning squad. The squad for PHL 2007 as follows.
| Name | Country | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Bharath Chetri |  |
Goalkeeper |
| P.T. Rao | |
Goalkeeper |
| Ajay Kumar Saroha | |
Fullback |
| Len Aiyappa | |
Fullback |
| Vinaya V.S | |
Fullback |
| Arjun Halappa | |
Half Back |
| Ignace Tirkey | |
Half Back |
| Gurpreet Singh | |
Half Back |
| Hari Prsad G.M | |
Forward |
| Tushar Khandekar | |
Forward |
| Bikramajit Singh | |
Defender |
| Sabhu Varkey | |
Forward |
| Laxman Rao N.P | |
Forward |
| Sandeep Michael | |
Forward |
| Suresh Kumar | |
Forward |
| Thijs De Greff |  |
|
| Sander Van Der Weide | |
|
| Rehan Butt |  |
Note: The list of players was obtained from the PHL website.
[edit] Team Personnel
- Ramesh Parameswaran (Chief Coach)
- Ashish Ballal (Asst. Coach)
- Kannan Krishnamurthy (General Manager)
- Poonacha C.S (Trainer)
[edit] Fixtures and Results
PHL 2007 will be held in two phases. The first phase is taking place in Chennai from Jan-4 to Feb-4 . The second phase will be held in Chandigarh from Feb-11 onwards. Here are the list of matches played by Bangalore Lions and the result of the matches.
[edit] Phase-I Matches In Chennai
| No. | Date | Opponent | Result | Goal Scorers | Man of the Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 5 | Maratha Warriors | won (2-1) | Len Aiyappa-2 | Len Aiyappa |
| 2 | Jan 7 | Hyderabad Sultans | won (3-0) | Rehan Butt, Sander van den Weide, Len Aiyappa | Rehan Butt |
| 3 | Jan 8 | Sher-e-Jalandhar | Lost(1-7) | Sabu Varkey | Gagan Ajith (Sher-e-Jalandhar) |
| 4 | Jan 10 | Chennai Veerans | won(6-1) | Rehan Butt-3,Len Aiyappa, Amar Aiyamma, Tushar Khandekar | Tushar Khandekar |
| 5 | Jan 24 | Chandigarh Dynamos | lost(0-1) | Jugraj Singh (Chandigarh Dynamos) | |
| 6 | Feb 1 | Orissa steelers | lost(0-3) | Sunil Yadav (Orissa Steelers) |
[edit] Points in Phase-I Matches
| P | W | L | ET-W | ET-L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 1(-) | 9 |
Note : In extra-time Winners and runners share 2 and 1 points respectively.Goals in tie-breaker are not included in GF and GA.
Under : P - Played, W - Won, L - Lost, ET-W Win in extra-time, ET-L Lost in Extra-time, GF - Goals For, GA - Goals Against, GD - Goal Difference, Pts - Points
[edit] Phase-II Matches In Chandigarh
| No. | Date | Opponent | Result | Goal Scorers | Man of the Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 13 | Maratha Warriors | |||
| 2 | Feb 14 | Hyderabad Sultans | |||
| 3 | Feb 18 | Chandigarh Dynamos | |||
| 4 | Feb 20 | Orissa steelers | |||
| 5 | Feb 23 | Chennai Veerans | |||
| 6 | Feb 27 | Sher-e-Jalandhar |
[edit] Star Players
Here are few players to watch out for this PHL 2007 season:
[edit] Len Aiyappa
The Drag-flick specialist from Bangalore Lions will be a key player in PHL 2007. He was the highest goal scorer in PHL 2005 & 2006. So watch out for his charismatic goals through drag flicks.
[edit] Arjun Halappa
He is an important member of Indian Hockey team. He is the captian of Bangalore Lions known for his fast play. Watchout for him as he leads the Lions to defend the 'champions' title.
[edit] Ignace Tirkey
The olympian from Indian Hockey team is a good midfeild player and will be an asset to Bangalore Lions in PHL 2007. He was the captain of Chennai Veerans in PHL 2005. Watchout for his midfeild power play.
[edit] Rehan Butt
He is one of the three foreign players to play for Bangalore Lions in PHL 2007. He was the captian of Pakistan team in Doha Asian Games-2006. He has uncanny knack of scoring goals. Watch out for his uncanny goals.
