New Delhi: The 13th Hockey India Senior Men National Championship will commence on Friday in Chennai.
The tournament will see twenty-nine teams, divided into eight pools, vying to make it to the Final on 28th November. Notably, the National Championship will be held at the same venue that saw the Indian Men’s Hockey Team clinch the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023 earlier this year.
Pool A will consist of defending Champions Hockey Haryana, Chhattisgarh Hockey, and Hockey Gujrat. Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, Hockey Himachal and Assam Hockey are placed in Pool B. Pool C will feature Hockey Karnataka, Hockey Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Hockey. Pool D comprises Hockey Maharashtra, Hockey Punjab, Hockey Uttarakhand, and Tripura Hockey, the Hockey India sources said.
Hockey Bengal, Hockey Madhya Pradesh, Hockey Jammu & Kashmir, and Manipur Hockey will battle it out in Pool E. Pool F will see Hockey Jharkhand go up against Hockey Chandigarh, Hockey Andhra Pradesh, and Goans Hockey. Pool G is made up of Uttar Pradesh Hockey, Le Puducherry Hockey, Kerala Hockey, and Hockey Rajasthan. Meanwhile, Pool H will feature Delhi Hockey, the Hockey Association of Odisha, Telangana Hockey, and Hockey Arunachal.
The table topper from each pool will qualify for the Quarter-Finals, the victors of which will advance to the Semi-Finals, scheduled for November 27. The winners of the Semi-Finals will go toe to toe in the Final on November 28.
A total of 31 players from the National Core Group will be participating in this tournament. Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Shamsher Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Krishan B Pathak, Jarmanpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh, and Gurinder Singh will represent Hockey Punjab.
Meanwhile, the Hockey Association of Odisha will be represented by Amit Rohidas, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Dipsan Tirkey, and Shilanand Lakra. Uttar Pradesh Hockey will register the services of Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Rajkumar Pal, Pawan Rajbhar, and Prashant Kumar Chauhan.
Hockey Haryana will look to defend their title with Sumit, Sanjay, Abhishek, Mandeep Mor, Pawan Malik, Yashdeep Siwach, and Manjeet while Vivek Sagar Prasad will take the field for Hockey Madhya Pradesh. Nilakanta Sharma will play for Manipur Hockey, Mohd Raheel Mouseen will represent Hockey Karnataka, Suraj Karkera will feature for Hockey Maharashtra, Maninder Singh will represent Hockey Chandigarh while local boy S. Karthi will lead the line for last year’s runners-up, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu.
“I am excited to go back to Chennai and play hockey. The overwhelming support we received during the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023 helped us perform better, so I hope the residents of Chennai turn up in droves again. The Senior Men National Championship is a good opportunity for players on the precipice of the Indian Team to rub shoulders with players from the current team and raise the overall level of hockey. I am looking forward to a great tournament,” the Indian Men’s Hockey Team Captain Harmanpreet Singh shared his thoughts before the tournament.
