Hockey India League to kick off next year; gets FIH window

The much anticipated Hockey India League has finally got a 30-day slot in the International Hockey Federation (FIH) window and will be held during next January-February.

The IPL-style league will see the participation of top players from around the world. The tournament will have six franchise teams panning six cities across the country, for which 12 cities have already been shortlisted. The players will be bought by the franchise in an auction in September.  

“The franchise could buy the team either through invitation, bidding or a tender. We will be taking a call on that shortly. We have some very good groups interested in owning the teams,” Batra told Deccan Herald.

“During the league, no international tournament will take place. We want it to be the world’s best league and hope that this venture will help in revival of hockey in India.”
Each team will comprise of 24 players from which 14 will be Indians and 10 foreigners.

From the 14 Indians, it will be mandatory to field two junior players from the under-19 teams for 20 minutes. Also, only five foreign players will be allowed to take the field at any given time.

“We want the juniors to rub shoulders with the international and national stars and learn,” Batra said. The listing of players for the auction has already started and this will require them to sign a contract with HI.

The auction will be from the pool of 96 Indian players (48 senior India probables and 48 junior India probables). The players can chose their base price which will have four slabs.
Also, each team is likely to be allowed a cap of Rs 3 crore. “It is, however, a tentative figure. We will be making things official in coming 2-3 weeks.”

There will be six Indian marquee players in each team with six foreign marquee players. A foreign broadcaster will be roped in to cover the tournament.

The Hockey India League is FIH’s answer to World Series Hockey, which was started on Feb 29 this year. The WSH, which was formed by rival Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and  Nimbus group, drew sharp criticism from the HI and FIH, which was quick to term the league “unsanctioned”. Attempts were made to bury the hatchet between the two warring factions, HI and IHF, and to bring WSH under a unified umbrella but the talks failed.