Nat'l youth hockey from today
South East Bank 22nd National Youth Hockey Competition begins today at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium. Twenty four district teams, divided into eight groups, will play in the round robin stage before the super league stage, said speakers at a press conference at the Hockey Federation hall room yesterday.
The champions of the eight groups will qualify for the super league stage where they will play in two groups. However, the fixtures of the super league and latter stage has not been finalised yet.
The tournament has a budget of Tk 8.14 lakh out of which Tk 5 lakh will be borne by sponsors South East Bank. Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee for youth and sports Zahid Ahsan Russel will inaugurate the even in the afternoon.
It may be mentioned here that the event makes a return to the hockey scene after a gap of three years with defending champions BKSP not fielding a side this time. The reason for BKSP's absence was explained by tournament committee secretary Hasan Uddin Ahmed Shimul, “The district requested us not to invite teams with players from the premier league. Since most of the players of BKSP participate in the premier league, they are much better in performance compared to the district sides, which demoralises those sides, said Shimul. “However, BKSP could have taken part if they fielded a side without premier league players, but they did not respond,” he added.
Other members of the hockey federation and representatives of the sponsors were present at the press conference.
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