Jalandhar, 16 September(Wishav Warta): India’s prestigious 34th IndianOil SERVO Surjit Hockey Tournament will be played here at the Olympian Surjit Singh polytan turf Hockey Stadium, Burlton Park from October 23. According to Varinder Kumar Sharma, IAS, President of the Surjit Hockey Society who is also the Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar that the tournament is organized every year by Society to keep the name of Sardar Surjit Singh Randhawa, ex-Olympian alive, who lost his life in a fatal car accident near Jalandhar on January 7th, 1984, while fighting hard for up- liftment of the National Game of Hockey in our Country.
As in the past 27 years, this year also, the Asia’s largest and leading Maharatna Oil Company IndianOil Corporation Limited will be the Main Title sponsor of the tournament. Varinder Kumar Sharma informed that the 34th edition of the IndianOil SERVO Surjit Hockey Tournament will be played from October 23 to 31, 2017. The tournament would be played on league-cum- knockout basis, in which 12 top ranking men teams of the country including last Year's Champion Punjab National Bank, Delhi and runners up Indian Army, New Delhi along with Namdhari-XI Sirsa, Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai , Oil & Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Delhi, Army-XI, New Delhi, Indian Air Force, Delhi, Indian Navy, Mumbai, Indian Railways, Delhi, Punjab Police, Air India, Mumbai & IndianOil, Mumbai will exhibit their skills in this 9 days hockey bonanza.
In the women section of the tournament, Seven top teams including last Year's Champion Punjab-XI and Runners up team Western Railway, Mumbai will take part along with Central Railways, Mumbai, Rail Coach factory, Kapurthala, North Central railway, Allahabad, UBO Bank and Haryana-XI. All the 12 teams in men section have been seeded directly into League stage and divided in 4 pools, where as in women section, all Five teams have been divided in 2 pools where as winner team from knock out stage will qualify for league. In men section, the winner team of each pool team will qualify for the Semi Finals and in the women section, 2 top teams of each pool will qualify for semi finals. Both men Semi Finals of the tournament will be played on 30th October, 2017 where as in women section, the Semi finals will be played on 27th & 28th of October, 2017, respectively. The finals in Men & Women section will be player on 31 st & 29th October, 2017, respectively.
There will be 4 matches daily. The Last two Matches of the tournament will be played mostly under flood lights and no gate entry money will be charged from the spectators who will come to witness the game of hockey, Sharma
added.
All arrangements have been made for the LIVE telecast of both the Semi Finals & Final Match of the tournament on PTC Channels on 30 th & 31 st October, 2017, respectively. All India Radio, Jalandhar will also relay the 'Ball-to- Ball' running commentary of the final match.
The champion of men section will get a Cash Award of Rs. 5.00 Lakhs, sponsored by Tut Brothers of USA while Runners’ up will be pocketed a cash award of Rs. 2.5 lakhs. As in the past, the best player of the tournament will get
Mohinder Singh Tut Memorial Award along with a cash prize of Rs. 25,000. This prize is sponsored by Ranbir Singh Rana Tut, Sharma added.
Under the slogan “Watch Surjit Hockey– Win ALTO Car”, this year also Surjit Hockey Society decided to award MARUTI ALTO Car along with other prizes like Motor Cycles, Refrigerators and LCDs etc. to the spectators, who will come to witness the Surjit Hockey matches. The main idea is to attract & to create more interest amongst the general public for our national game of Hockey. The spectators will get daily lucky coupons till October 11 at the entry gate of the stadium while players will be issued the lucky coupons on the day of their first match. The lucky draw for the ALTO Cars and other prizes will be held on Oct. 31, soon after the final match. The main idea is to attract & to create more interest amongst the general public for our national game of Hockey, Sharma added.
