The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : PHL3 launched

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Friday, Dec 08, 2006
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Sport - Hockey

PHL3 launched

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Badminton legend Prakash Padukone, actors R. Madhavan and Jimmy Shergill, former and current cricketers Ravi Shastri, Venkatsai Laxman and Debashish Mohanty will cheer the teams in the seven-team Indian Premier Hockey League 3 (PHL3) to be played in Chennai in January 2007 and in Chandigarh in February.

Padukone will cheer the Bangalore Lions, Shastri the Maratha Warriors, Laxman the Hyderabad Sultans, Mohanty the Orissa Steelers, Madhavan the Chennai Veerans and Shergill will cheer Sher-e-Jalandhar and Chandigarh Dynamos.

The matches in league have doubled from 23 to 45, with the seven teams initially playing a round robin followed by the semifinals and the final.

At the launch of PHL3, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) President, K.P.S. Gill, implored the fans to keep faith in Indian hockey and support it in a big way despite the reverses in the Doha Asiad.

Padukone, who was present at the launch, applauded the initiative and appealed for more such tournaments so that India could regain its lost glory. "Even other sports should follow suit. I played in an Asian Games for the first time in 1972 and then I met the hockey players, saw them in action and cheered them.

I want all the seven teams to do well, but I am supporting the Bangalore Lions as I am from the same city, I love hockey and my second daughter is the captain of her school hockey team.''

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