Life insurance for PHL players

Private life insurance firm ING Vysya Life has signed on as the official insurer of the Premier Hockey League, it was announced on Thursday.

The Bangalore-based company will provide a life insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh each to all the participating Indian players (in Tier-I and II).

It would also sponsor the Bangalore team-- which Bangalore Lions-- for the 2006 edition of the PHL, ING Vysya Life's MD and CEO Frank Koster said.

"We have started off with Bangalore Lions (for sponsorship) and we are keen to see that Hockey develops strongly in India," Koster said.

In addition to the Bangalore Lions title sponsorship, Koster said ING Vysya Life will also be awarding the "Lion of the day" to each man-of-the-match for Tier-I and Tier-II games.

The Tier-I "Lion of the day" will be awarded Rs 10,000, while Tier-II "Lion of the day" will be awarded Rs 5,000. The award during the best of three finals will fetch Rs 15,000, he added.

PHL is the brainchild of Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), ESPN-Star Sports and Leisure Sports Management (LSM). The television channel has been entrusted with the responsibility of marketing and broadcasting PHL for a period of 10 years.

Managing Director of ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd R C Venkteish said "Eleven foreign players have already confirmed and more will be announced in the near future."

PHL Teams:

Hyderabad Sultans: Dilip Tirkey (Captain), Salman Akbar (Pakistan), Jorge Lombi (Argentina), Shakeel Abbasi (Pakistan), Devesh Chauhan (G.K.), Lazarus Barla, Johnson Ekka, Nitin Kumar, Prabhakar Singh, Amit Srivastava, Sameer Dad, Susan Topno, Vikram Pillay, Veer Singh, Nityanand, M A Aleem, Ajitesh Rai, Devender Pal Singh, G Sathyanarayan (Manager), Rajinder Singh (Jr.) (Coach), Madhukaran (Coach), Ashok Kumar (Trainer).

Sher-e-Jallandhar:  Gagan Ajit Singh (Captain), Mohammad Saqlain (Pakistan), Pau quemada (Spain), Maninder Singh (G.K), Swinder Singh (G.K), Harpal Singh, Harmik Singh, Balwant Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh, Baljit Singh Saini, Ajmer Singh, Baljit Singh Dhillon, Prabhjot Singh, Parminder Singh, Daljit Singh Dhillon, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Prabdeep Singh, Surinder Singh Sodhi (Manager), Ramandeep Singh (Coach), Jagdeep Gill (Physio), Sanjeev Kumar (Coach).

Maratha Warriors: Viren Rasquinha (Captain), Andan Zakir (Pakistan), Imran Warsi (Pakistan), Adrian D'Souza (G.K.), Suraj Kantha (G.K.), William Xalxo, Sunil Yadhav, Gursevak Singh, Vivek Gupta, Dhanraj Pillay, Shivendra Singh, Vijay Alphonso, Heman Ghete, Nitin Kumar, Girish Pimpale, Bharat Kumar, Dhananjay Mahadik, Sai Ram Bishnoi, Clarence Lobo (Coach), Mukul Pandey (Asst. Coach), SS Walia (Manager), Harvinder Singh Cheema (Trainer).

Bangalore Hi-Fliers:  Arjun Halappa (Captain), Jordi Quintana, Rehan Butt (Pakistan), Bharath Kumar Chetri (G.K.), Rao P T (G.K), Ajay Kumar Saroha, Bikramjit Singh, Vinaya V S, Ignace Tirkey, Bipin Fernandes, Prabodh Tirkey, Bimal Lakra, Tushar Khandekar, Sandeep Michael, Hari Prasad, Len Aiyappa, Suresh Kumar, Sabu Varkey, Ramesh Parameshwaran (Coach), Ashish Ballal (Asst. Coach), C.S.Poonacha (Trainer), Krishanmurthy K (Manager).

Chandigarh Dynamos:  Rajpal Singh (Captain), Balder Bomans (The Netherlands), Dilawar Hussain (Pakistan), Kamaldeep Singh (G.K.), Baljit Singh (G.K.), Jugraj Singh, Sandeep Singh (Sr.), Saurabh Bishnoi, S S Gill, Jaswinder Singh, Sandeep Singh (jr.), Gaurav Tokhi, Inderjit Chadha, Deepak Thakur, Ravipal Singh, Tejbir Singh, Davinder Kumar, N S Sodhi (Coach), Sardar Amarjit Singh (Manager), Servesh Sharma (Asst Manager), Baldev Singh (Trainer).