The country's leading teams, including Sikh Regiment Centre and Punjab and Sind Bank, will vie for honours in the 41st Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament, to be held at Mahindra stadium in Mumbai, between April 14 and 30.
Bombay Hockey Association president Bakshi Dilbagh Singh said star-studded Indian Airlines, Delhi, and defending champions Air India, Mumbai, along with Karnataka XI and Tamil Nadu XI are the other teams to watch out for in the tournament, to be played on a league-cum-knock-out format.
"The 24 teams in the fray have been divided into four clusters of six each and the top two teams from each cluster will make it to the quarter-finals, to be played on league basis with four teams each in Pool 'A' and Pool 'B'.
"Then the winner of Pool 'A' will take on the runner-up of Pool 'B' and the winner of Pool 'B' will clash with the runner-up of Pool 'A' in the semi-finals before the final on April 30," he said.
The winner of tournament will get Rs 100,000 lakh while the runners-up will take Rs 50,000.
The best player of the tournament and final, best goalkeeper and top scorer will all getting Rs 5,000 each. The fair play award is worth Rs 11,000.
Air India along with Maharashtra State Police, Bhopal XI, Indian Navy, South Central Railway and India Oil are in the first quarter while the second quarter comprises Tamil Nadu XI, Western Railway, RCF, Mumbai Customs, Sikh Regiment Centre and Punjab and Sind Bank
The teams in the third quarter are Karnataka XI, Central Railway, Maharashtra Eleven, ONGC, Signals and CISF, while the fourth quarter comprises Tata Sports Club, EME (Jalandhar), BHA Colts, Mumbai Port Trust and Indian Airlines.
The opening day's fixtures: M S Police vs Bhopal XI; Mumbai Customs vs Sikh Regiment Centtre; Central Railway vs Maharashtra XI; ONGC vs Signals.
