JAMMU: Defending Champions, Indian Tibet Border Police (ITBP) shall be playing against Uttrakhand Police in the opening match of the 65th All India Police Hockey Championship, organised by J and K Police under the aegis of All India Police Sports Board (AIPSCB), at K K Hakku Stadium, here tomorrow.
However, hosts Jammu and Kashmir Police were yet to declare their final 20-member squad for the prestigious event. The J and K Police shall start their group campaign on 11th December, so the team management delayed the announcement of the team.
The opening match has been scheduled at 7:30 AM at the main venue of KK Hakku Stadium. Another match between last year’s runners-up, Maharashtra Police and Rajasthan shall be played at the same time at second (grass field) venue of University of Jammu grounds.
Due to delayed reporting of a couple of teams, the technical committee was still in the process of finalising the fixture of league round when the last reports were filed. However, it has been reliably learnt that as many as six matches have been scheduled for tomorrow in the morning session along.
In the post lunch session there will be opening ceremony scheduled to take place at 3:00 PM. Deputy Chief Minister, Nirmal Singh has consented to be the Chief Guest in the formal inaugural function of the week-long mega event.
The Hockey India has deputed Ashutosh Verma as Tournament Director while Naveed Zia shall act as Umpire Manager. GS Meeta and MS Reen shall be technical officials while Joginder Singh and Sham Lal Sharma have been deputed as judges. The penal of Umpires included Deepak Kumar, Dilawar Sandhu, Raj Kumar Jha, Bhanu Aggarwal, Jagjit Singh and Karanjit Singh.
In all, 27 teams representing mostly the state police are taking part in this competition. These teams have been divided into eight different pools for the league round. J and K has been placed in group-G with Puducherry and Bihar being other State police teams to compete with.