Ranjit Singh hockey tourney begins on March 6 in the capital

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) Top teams, including Indian Airlines, Namdhari XI and Punjab and Sind Bank, will feature in the third Maharaja Ranjit Singh hockey tournament which begins on March 6 at the Shivaji Stadium here.

Air India, IOC, BPCL, PNB, BSF and SRC Ramgarh are the other teams to vie for top honours in the nine-day tournament sponsored by Oriental Bank.

BSF and SRC Ramgarh will play a preliminary round match on March 6 and the winner will join the other seven in the league stage.

The eight teams will be placed in two groups and top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals to be played on March 13. The final is scheduled for next day.

The winners will take home Rs 1 lakh while the runners-up will pocket Rs 50,000.

The organisers are expecting to see top Indian players in the tournament.

''The PHL finishes on March 5 and we are expecting top players participating in the tournament,'' said Mr MS Bhullar at a press conference here last night which was attended by former Olympians Ajit Pal Singh, Harbinder Singh and Commander Nady Singh.

UNI