Mumbai, Apr 11: Top teams in the country, including Sikh Regiment and Punjab and Sind Bank will vie for top honours in the 41st All India Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament to be held at Mahindra Stadium here from April 14 to 30. The president of Bombay Hockey Association (BHA), Bakshi Dilbagh Singh, told reporters here yesterday that the star studded Indian Airlines, Delhi and reigning champions Air India, Mumbai along with Karnataka XI and Tamil Nadu XI are the other teams to watch out in the tournament to be played on league cum knock-out basis. "The 24 teams in the fray have been divided into four clusters of six each and the top two teams from each cluster will make it to the quarter-finals to be played on league basis with four teams each in pool-A and pool-B,” he said. “Then the winner of pool-A will take on runner-up of pool-B and winner of pool-B will clash with the runner-up of pool-A in the semi-finals before the final on April 30," Singh added. The winner of tournament stands to get Rs one lakh while the runners-up will take home Rs 50,000. The best player of the tournament and final, best goalkeeper and top scorer all getting Rs 5,000 each. The fair play award is worth Rs 11,000.
Bureau Report