The 17th BSNl Hockey Tournament will be held at Astroturf Stadium in Ranchi from Wednesday. The tournament will continue for three days during which five teams will participate and the finals will be played on Friday at 2 pm. General Manager (Sales) cum Chairman (Technical, Tournament and Press Media Committee) Ramashray Prasad said that the tournament is held in different parts of the Country every year to promote hockey among the people.
“A total of six matches will be played between five teams – Jharkhand, Northern Telecom Region (New Delhi), Odisha, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir participating in the tournament,” said Prasad. Players of national and international fame who are also the employees of BSNl will participate in the tournament from different teams, he added. Prasad further said that the tournament will start on Wednesday during which former Olympian and Dhyanchand Award winner Sylvanus Dung Dung will be the Chief Guests and the programme will be chaired by Chief General Manager of Jharkhand Circle KK Thakur.
“A six member team of technical delegates from the BSNl Corporate Office is also coming which includes Observer, Chief Referee along with three other Referees,” said the GM. Jharkhand Circle being a winner of the tournament held last year will try to restore its position this year also, he added.
“There will be a total of six matches between the participating teams which have been grouped in two pools. Pool A have Jharkhand and NTR New Delhi in it while Pool B includes Karnataka, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir. Final match will be played at 2 pm on Friday,” said Prasad.