24 teams for Nehru hockey

A record 24 teams, including defending champions Indian Oil, runners-up Bharat Petroleum, former champions Punjab and Sind Bank, Indian Airlines, BSF and Punjab Police, will vie for honours in the 38th Nehru hockey tournament, in Delhi, from November 10 to 21.

The Rs 400,000 prize-money tournament, to be played on the newly- laid astro-turf at the Shivaji stadium, will be conducted in two phases.

In the first phase, 18 teams have been divided into six groups of three teams each. The winner of each group will join the six teams who have been seeded directly.

The 12 teams in phase-II have been divided into four groups of three teams each. The winner of each group will qualify for the semi-finals.

The winners will receive R 200,000 and the runners-up Rs 100,000.

The remaining Rs 100,000 will be divided between the third and fourth placed teams and five promising players of the tournament, which is being sponsored by ONGC.

Intrestingly, last year's winners Indian Oil have not been seeded.

Nehru Hockey Tournament Society secretary Shiv Kumar Verma told newspersons that several players who did duty for Indian Oil XI last year had left the team. The defending champions are not at full strength, hence they haven't been seeded.

The six seeded teams are: Bharat Petroleum, Punjab and Sind Bank, Indian Airlines, Air India (Bombay), Railways, Tamil Nadu XI.

The 18 teams for the first phase are: Indian Oil, BSF, Punjab Police, CRPF, Combined Universties, Mumbai, Bengal, Jharkhand, UP, Corps of Signals, Sikh Regt. Centre, Navy, Indian Air Force, IHF Juniors, SAIL XI, ONGC and Rock Rovers (Chandigarh).