Mahindra College, Patiala opt out as they have no team

New Delhi,Feb 7 (UNI) The growing lack of intrest in hockey became evident when last year's third placer Mahindra College, Patiala expressed their inability to take part in the 15th SAIL-Nehru Champions Colleges tournament as they have no ''worthwhile'' team to field.

The organising committee of the tournament had invited Mahindra College to take part but they (college) declined saying they have no team.

The over Rs two lakh prize money tournament will kick start here tomorrow with runners up Jawahar Lal Nehru P G College, Bhopal taking on Khalsa College, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.

Talking to newspersons here this afternoon, Nehru hockey society secretary S K Verma said that 12 teams including defending champion and eight time winner DAV, Jalandhar will be seen in action in this tournament.

The teams have been divided into four pools and winner of each pool will qualify for the semi finals.

The Pools: Pool-I : D A V Jalandhar, Faculty of Education Annamalai University, S B M Jain College, Bangalore.

Pool-II : V B Singh College, Gazipur (UP), Municipal College, Rourkela, Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar Pool-III : Jawahar Lal Nehru PG college Bhopal, Pachaiyappa's College Chennai, Khalsa College, Yamuna Nagar, Haryana Pool-IV : Faculty of Humanity and Social Science MG KV, Varanasi, Jamal Mohammed College Tiruchirapalli, S G G S College Chandigarh.

The final of the tournament is slated for February 16.

The title winning team will get Rs 96,000 as prize, runners-up Rs 64,000 and the third placer Rs 32,000.

UNI HSB AB DS1416