Fifth Asian School Hockey Championship Preparations Complete

Bhopal: The preparations for the Fifth Asian School Hockey Championship to be held from April 2-12 at Aishbagh Stadium in Bhopal are complete. The inaugural ceremony would be held at 5 in the evening on April 3. The championship is being organized by the School Education Department for boys below 18 years. Total 192 players and officials from eight countries are taking part in the championship.

Cultural programme focused on India’s diverse culture will be presented at the inaugural ceremony. There will be day-night matches from April 4 at Aishbagh Stadium during the championship. The participating countries have been divided into ‘A’ and ‘B’ Pool. The ‘A’ Pool will include the Malaysia, Srilanka, China and UAE teams while the ‘B’ Pool includes Nepal, India, Singapore and Thailand teams. During the championship, there will three matches each on April 4 and 5 and there will be two matches each daily from April 6-11. The match will begin from 4 in the evening. The final match in championship will be on April 11 at 5 in the evening followed by the concluding ceremony. April 9 will be rest day, players will be toured round historic and tourist spots nearby.

At least 18 players have been selected in the Indian team which includes three players of Madhya Pradesh including Saurabh Pasine, Mohammed Alishan and Shahib ur Rehman. The foreign teams will start reaching Bhopal from April 1. By April 2nd, all teams excluding the UAE team will reach Bhopal. The UAE team will reach Bhopal on April 4. Lodging arrangements for players and office-bearers of all the teams have been made in good local hotels. Two liasoning officers have been appointed for each team.

The 18 players selected in the Indian team are Sahil Kumar (Odisha), Vikas Gaur (Uttar Pradesh), Pratap Lakda (Odisha), Vinod Saini (Uttar Pradesh), Amit (Haryana), Jaspreet Singh (Chandigarh), Saurabh Pasine (Madhya Pradesh), Sanjay (Chandigarh), Deepak (Haryana), Ravi Kumar (Punjab) Akash Ekka (Odisha), Mohammed Alishan (Madhya Pradesh), Manendar Singh (Chandigarh), Mohammed Saif Khan (Uttar Pradesh), Maneep Kerketta (Odisha), Rahul Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Sahib ur Rehman (Madhya Pradesh) and Akhtar Ali (Uttar Pradesh). Shri Brijbhushan Saxena, Chairman Technical Committee School Games Federation of India is the Indian team’s General Manager. Federation’s Vice President Alok Khare has been made the Coordinator of the Championship.-WTN