12 teams for Bengaluru Super Division Hockey League

Bengaluru, July 9: Hockey Bengaluru will host their second edition of the Bengaluru Super Division Hockey League from July 12-29 at the KSHA Hockey Stadium in the city.

Twelve teams, including defending champions Punjab National Bank (PNB), will take part in the event, the organisers said. However, runners-up BPCL will not feature in the event as many of their stars are currently in the Indian national team at the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru.

The 12 teams have been divided into two pools of six each. Matches will be held in a round robin format and the top two from each pool will qualify for the Elite Round Robin league. In this stage, the remaining four teams will again face each other once. The top two will qualify for the final, while the other teams will play the third-place playoff match.

"The prize money of Rs 10 lakh will be distributed among the top four teams," Hockey Bengaluru secretary K Krishnamurthy said on Monday (July 9). "While the winners will get Rs 5 lakh, the runners-up will receive Rs 2.5 lakh. The team that finishes third will receive Rs 1.5 lakh, while the remaining Rs 1 lakh will be handed to the fourth-placed team."

The prize money even in the first edition of the tournament was about the same. "Apart from this tournament, only the Murugappa Cup in Chennai has a prize money of Rs 10 lakh," Krishnamurthy said.

Cleaning drive near Administrative office at Bengaluru by Employees during Swachhta Pakwada..Sri VIckram Kanth ,National Hockey player and our employee also participated @IndianOilcl @SwachhBharatGov pic.twitter.com/YHLMK3MCVt

— IOCL Karnataka (@karnataka_ioc) July 6, 2018

Three teams - BPCL, Jain University and Army Green - pulled out from the tournament. In place of them, CAG, Indian Navy and Canara Bank were invited to participate in the event. Four teams - Fortis, Canara Bank, All India Customs and Army XI - are from the city. There are three teams from New Delhi (PNB, CAG and SAI), two from Mumbai (IOCL and Indian Navy) and one each from Chandigarh (Indian Air Force), Dehradun (ONGC) and Secunderabad (South Central Railway) which are taking part in the tournament.

"This is the second edition of this revamped tournament which we started after we were granted affiliation by the Hockey India," Krishnamurthy added. "However, the Super Division as such has been going on for more than 10 years."

Teams:

Pool A: PNB, IOCL, CAG, Fortis, Indian Air Force, Canara Bank

Pool B: ONGC, South Central Railway, Army XI, All India Customs, Indian Navy, SAI

Matches will take place at 12.15 pm, 2 pm and 4 pm at the KSHA Hockey Stadium in Bengaluru.