Bombay Gold Cup Hockey tournament to begin from April 15

Mumbai, April 11: The 47th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey tournament will be held from April 15-29 at the Mumbai Hockey

Association`s (MHA) Mahindra stadium here by an ad-hoc committee formed by the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the association today.The ad-hoc committee comprising 11 members, with former Mayor Manmohan Singh Bedi as its head and former national player S S Walia as the tournament director, was formed following an order of the Mumbai civil court earlier this week restraining the MHA`s managing committee for three days. "We have got the permission to conduct the tournament from the Indian Olympic Association Ad-hoc Committee for Hockey. They have not taken back the permission," a member of the MHA`s ad-hoc Committee for conducting the prestigious tournament told reporters here. "The SGM also decided that the elections of office-bearers and other committee members will be held on June 29," he said. Army XI, the winners in 2006, and 2007 winners Bharat Petroleum are among the leading teams who have entered the tournament. The other top outstation teams in the fray are ONGC, Indian Oil, BSF (Jalandhar), 2004 champions Punjab Sindh Bank (Jalandhar), Pamposh XI (Orissa) and Karnataka XI. Air-India, the 2002 winners, and 2005 winners Western Railway will also be a part of the tournament. The tournament will be held in a league-cum-knockout format with the winners taking home Rs 1.25 lakh and the runners up Rs 75,000. Seven Federation of International Hockey qualified senior umpires will officiate in the tournament along with 10 local Grade I umpires. Bureau Report