Premier Hockey League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Premier Hockey League | |
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| Sport | Field Hockey |
| Founded | 2005 |
| No. of teams | 7 Hyderabad Sultans Sher-e-Jallandhar Maratha Warriors Bangalore Lions Chandigarh Dynamos Chennai Veerans Orissa Steelers |
| Country |  India |
| Current champions | Orissa Steelers |
| Official website | premierhockeyleague.com |
The Premier Hockey League (PHL) is a three year old domestic field hockey tournament in India, conducted by Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) with active support from sports news channel ESPN India. The tournament was initiated to revive interest in the sport which was losing spectator interest to cricket in recent times. Hockey is India's National Sport, with the country having won a record eight Olympic Gold medals and having lifted the World Cup once.
One of the main reasons for the waning popularity of the existing domestic competition was the rise of corporate teams such as Indian Airlines and Punjab & Sind Bank which do not have a steady fan following. PHL is trying to change that by bringing in regional flavor. It fields teams from traditional hockey bastions such as Bombay, Punjab, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu, as well as from other places like Hyderabad and Bangalore, where it has got some fan following.
PHL 2007, played in two phases in Chennai and Chandigarh saw participation of seven teams -- Orissa Steelers, Sher-e-Jalandhar, Bangalore Lions, Hyderabad Sultans, Maratha Warriors, Chandigarh Dynamos and Chennai Veerans. Orissa Steelers won the title in 2007. Sher-e-Jalandhar was the runners up.
In the 2006 tournament, which comprised of two tiers, Bangalore Lions had won the premier division title and Orissa Steelers the first division title. In the inaugural edition of 2005, Hyderabad Sultans had won the title.
The prize money for the winners in 2007 edition was Rs 4 million.
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[edit] New features
The fundamental aberration from the format of normal hockey games is the number of sessions. A normal 70 minute hockey game includes two sessions, each of 35 minutes each. The PHL has four sessions each of 17.5 minutes. This format is tailor made to include more advertising time in order to generate funds. Teams are allowed to take time-outs to chalk out new strategies during the course of the game.
If the match is deadlocked after full-time, the number of players of each team is gradually reduced till a result is obtained. A win within full-time fetches three points, whereas a win after full-time fetches two points to the winning team and one to the losing team. Each team is also allowed to field up to five international players.
[edit] Teams
There are 7 teams in the PHL:
Hyderabad Sultans
Sher-e-Jallandhar
Maratha Warriors
Bangalore Lions
Chandigarh Dynamos
Chennai Veerans
Orissa Steelers
[edit] PHL 2006
[edit] Results
- Bangalore Lions Champion of 2006.They defeated Chandigarh Dynamos in a best of three final series
- Maratha Warriors relegated to Tier-2
- Orissa Steelers promoted to Tier-1
[edit] PHL 2007
[edit] Teams
Orissa Steelers won the PHL 2007 against Sher-e-Jallandhar by beating them by 4-3 in third final.
In the 2007 edition the organisers will eliminate tier 2 and play all the teams in single tier. Also the number of teams will be reduced from 10 teams to 7. Delhi Dazzlers, Bengal Tigers, Lucknow Nawabs, and Imphal Rangers will be dropped for the 2007 season.
[edit] Tier-1
- Bangalore Lions
- Chandigarh Dynamos
- Hyderabad Sultans
- Sher-e-Jallandhar
- Orissa Steelers
- Maratha Warriors
- Chennai Veerans
[edit] International players
[edit] Hyderabad Sultans
- Sebastian Westerhout (Netherlands)
- Shakeel Abbasi (Pakistan)
- Tariq Aziz (Pakistan)
[edit] Sher-e-Jallandar
- Don Prins (Netherlands)
- Mohammad Imran (Pakistan)
- Imran Khan (Pakistan)
[edit] Maratha Warriors
- Cesco Van Der Vliet (Netherlands)
- Adnan Maqsood (Pakistan)
- Imran Warsi (Pakistan)
- Jamie Dwyer (Australia)
[edit] Bangalore Lions
- Thijs De Greff ()
- Sander Van Der Weide (Netherlands)
- Rehan Butt (Pakistan)
[edit] Chandigarh Dynamos
- Balder Bomans (Netherlands)
- Sajjad Anwar (Pakistan)
- Timo Bruinsma (Netherlands)
[edit] Chennai Veerans
- Albert Cassas (Spain)
- Kuhan Shanmuganathan (Malaysia)
- Muhammed Zubair (Pakistan)
[edit] Orissa Steelers
- Tjeerd Steller (Netherlands)
- Salman Akbar (Pakistan)
- Adnan Zakir (Pakistan)
[edit] Likely impact
While most experts agree that it is too early to predict the fallout of the PHL, many in the Indian Hockey circles are delighted to have hockey glamorised with the intention of reviving the flagging sport. Experts accuse the Indian Hockey Federation of being to lethargic and bureaucratic in popularising the sport. Meanwhile the International Hockey Federation is keenly studying the format.
Critics argue that traditional hockey bastions such as Kodagu (Coorg), Jharkhand, Orissa and parts of Punjab have been ignored, but organisers say that in due course of time more teams may be included.
