Madhya Pradesh (MP) male hockey academy team secured first runner up position in the 79th All India Scindia Gold Cup held at Gwalior.
The matches were played from March 11 to 19, 2016 at Gwalior in which final match was played between Punjab National Bank (PNB), Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. PNB Delhi won the match by 4-2 goals, while the MP academy’s players Nizamuddin and Arjun Sharma scored one goal each for the team.
In the quarter final match, MP played against ONGC Delhi and the match was a draw with each team scoring two goals. In the match Nizamuddin and Vikas Choudhary scored one goal each for MP. In the shootout, Vivek Sagar and Vikas Choudhary scored goals while goal keeper Abdul Samad stopped four shootouts and MP team won the match.
Similarly, semifinal match was also interesting. It was played between Punjab and Sind Bank, Jalandhar and MP academy and the match was a draw with each team scoring two goals. The goals for the MP academy were scored by Vikas Choudhary and Nikki Kaushal. In the shootout, Abdul Samad stopped three goals and led the team to victory.
The MP Sports and Youth Welfare minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia congratulated the academy players. The Director of Sports and Youth Welfare Upendra Jain also expressed happiness in the achievement of the academy players.
The MP academy team included Abdul Samad (goal keeper), Shakir Hussain, Devesh, Nikki Kaushal, Mohammad Nizamuddin, Vivek Sagar, Arjun Sharma (captain), Mohan Mahor, Ameen Khan, Izhar Qureshi, Ravi Pache, Abhay Yadav, Sohel Zafar, Abhay Parihar, Vikas Choudhary, Himanshu Sanik, Shahnawaz and Amit Rathore (goal keeper).
The players were trained by Coach Habib Hasan, lokendra Sharma and technical advisor Ashok Dhyanchand.