BANGALORE: Indian hockey fans can brace themselves for the Big League! The inaugural edition of the World Series Hockey will be played from December 15, 2011 to January 22, 2012 and will involve 176 leading players — Indian and International — who will showcase their talent in 61 matches to be played across eight cities.
World Series Hockey will be a multi-city franchise-based League with the players being allocated to the teams based on the internationally accepted and practiced ‘Draft’ system.
“The inaugural edition of the league comprises of eight teams and players have signed contracts for the next three years,” said Yannick Colaco, COO, Nimbus Sport at a press conference in Mumbai. Yannick, incidentally, is the son of former AIFF secretary Albert Coalco.
“All the India internationals have signed on the dotted line,” Colaco added. “We’re also extremely pleased to confirm the participation of international hockey stars from Australia, Argentina, Spain, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Korea.”
At the press conference, World Series Hockey also revealed the eight Team captains who are Indian Internationals: Sardara Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa and Prabhjot Singh; Brent Livermore from Australia, Pakistan’s Rehan Butt, former Spanish captain Rodrigo Garza and Argentinian “All Star” Lucas Vila.
Speaking on the occasion, Harish Thawani, Executive Chairman, Nimbus Communications Ltd, expressed delight at the overwhelming support for the World Series Hockey showered by the players and exuded confidenc that the WSH will change the complete landscape of hockey in India. Nimbus is conducting the league jointly with Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).
For the first time in hockey, these players will be financially rewarded and will have a global platform to exhibit their skills. The legacy created by the upgrade of hockey infrastructure across the country will benefit the sport of Hockey for generations to come,” he said.
IHF President R K Shetty is upbeat on World Series Hockey. “It will certainly do wonders for our National sport,” he said. The league, he felt, would give youngsters an opportunity to soak up all the styles, techniques and nuances of a sport that never ceases to evolve, besides bonding with the top stars.”
Some of the Indian and global stars who will be seen in action in World Series Hockey include Lucas Villa and Pedro Ibarra from Argentina, Pakistan’s Rehan Butt and Shakeel Abbasi along with Rodrigo Garza (Spain), Brent Livermore (Australia), Jiwa Mohan (Malaysia) and Sung Min Lee (South Korea), India’s Rajpal Singh, Sandeep Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Sardara Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Arjun Halappa, Diwakar Ram, Bharat Chetri, Dhananjay Mahadik, Shivendra Singh, Mandeep Antil, S.V. Sunil, Roshan Minz, William Xalxo and Prabodh Tirkey.
