Mumbai: 150 Indian players, including all the top stars from the current national team have signed on and received advanced payments to play in World Series Hockey. Virtually every player has signed 3 year exclusive contracts.
Four of these stars will be captains in the inaugural edition of the tournament. This list includes ‘Rushing’ Goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza, Playmaker Arjun Halappa, Speedy Forward Prabhjot Singh, and ’All Star’ Sardar Singh.
The other star Indian players include Ace Drag Flicker Sandeep Singh, Current captain Rajpal Singh, super talented goalkeeper Bharat Chetri and emerging champion Yuvraj Walmiki, who dazzled with his tournament winning goal scoring performances at the recently concluded Asian Champions Challenge.
WSH also marks the comeback of super achiever Viren Rasquinha and Indian hockey’s biggest superstar Dhanraj Pillay.
The league will also see upcoming gems like Gurjinder Singh, the India U-21 Captain, the speedy 19 year old forward Kangujam Chinglensana Singh, the fast left forward Victo Singh and the best player of the last National Games, S.K.Uthappa.
Prominent internationally capped players who are on the roster include Baljeet Singh, Deepak Thakur, Dhananjay Mahadik, Diwakar Ram, Gurbaj Singh, Mandeep Antil, Prabodh Tirkey, Roshan Minz, Shivendra Singh, S.V. Sunil, Tushar Khandker, and William Xalxo.
Prabhjot Singh said, “I’m really excited about playing in the inaugural edition of World Series Hockey. It’s a great initiative for the sport of hockey and I can’t wait to play alongside the best hockey players from India and around the world”
Karl Da Costa, Deputy General Manager, Nimbus Sport, said, “We are proud to announce the participation of all the star Indian players in World Series Hockey. One of the key focus areas for the league is to fortify the talent pool of Hockey in India and it will be a splendid display of skill as our Indian champions will play with global superstars. Besides, it will be a fantastic opportunity for the young and emerging players to compete with the world’s best.”
The WSH will be held from December 17, 2011 to January 22, 2012 and will involve 200 leading players -- Indian and international -- who will showcase their talent in 61 matches. It will be a multi-city franchise-based League with players being allocated to the teams based on the internationally accepted and practised ‘draft’ system.
The inaugural edition of the league will comprise eight teams out of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune, Bhopal, Punjab, Ranchi and Rourkela.
Hockey players, for the first time, will have a global platform to exhibit their skills for which they will be financially rewarded. The legacy created by the planned upgrading of infrastructure across the country will benefit hockey for generations to come.
ANNEXURE OF INDIAN PLAYERS SIGNED FOR WSH
• A B Cheeyanna
• Abhishek Singh
• Adam Sinclair
• Adrian D'Souza
• Aijub Ekka
• Ajitesh Roy
• Akashdeep Singh
• Alden D'Souza
• Amar Aiyamma
• Amardeep Ekka (IOB)
• Amardeep Ekka
• Amit Gowda
• Amit Kumar Prabhakar
• Anand Tirkey
• Ankit Gulllia
• Anup Anthony
• Arjun Antil
• Arjun Halappa
• Armaan Qureshi
• Baljeet Singh
• Baljinder Singh
• Barkat Singh
• Bharat Chikara
• Bharat Chetri
• Bikash Topo
• Bikramjit Singh
• Birendra Lakra (Air India)
• Birendra Lakra
• Bruno Lugun
• C S Khalkho
• Cariappa A D
• Chinthakunta Santosh Kumar
• Conroy Remedios
• Damandeep Singh
• Danish Mujtaba
• Deep Mahendrabhai Patel
• Deepak Kullu
• Deepak Thakur
• Devesh Chauhan
• Devinder Singh
• Dhananjay Mahadik
• Dhanraj Pillay
• Dharamvir Singh
• Dinesh Ekka
• Diwakar Ram
• Errol D'Silva
• G M Hariprasad
• Gagandeep Singh
• Gaurav Tokhi
• Gauravjeet Singh
• Gurbaj Singh
• Gurjinder Singh
• Gurpreet Singh
• Gurpreet Singh Guri
• Gursev Singh
• Gurvinder Singh Chandi
• Hamza Mujtaba
• Hansraj Jangra
• Harbir Singh
• Harmanpreet Singh
• Ignace Tirkey
• Imran Khan
• Inderjit Singh
• Inocent Kullu
• Jagdeep Dayal
• Jarnail Singh
• Jasjit Singh Kular
• Jaspreet Singh
• Jaswinder Singh
• Jay Karan
• John Topno
• K Victo Singh
• Kangujam Chinglensana Singh
• Kangujam Suresh Singh
• Karan Pal Singh
• Karmjit Singh
• Kiesham Roshan
• Kuttappa AC
• Lalit Kumar Upadhyay
• Lovedeep Singh
• Mandeep Antil
• Mandeep Singh
• Manjeet Kullu
• Manoj Antil
• Mathias Minz
• Mohd. Amir Khan
• Mohd. Sahir
• Mrinal Choubey
• N Senthil Kumar
• Nagalingaswamy B
• Narad Bahadur
• Nikkin Thimmaiah C A
• Nitin Kumar
• Nitin Thimmaiah
• Niyaz Rahim Mumtazur Rahim
• P R Sreejesh
• P T Rao
• Poonacha M G
• Prabhakar
• Prabhdeep Singh (BPCL)
• Prabhdeep Singh
• Prabhjot Singh
• Prabodh Tirkey
• Pradhan Somanna
• Pramod Kumar
• Preetinder Singh
• Rafeeq S M
• Raghunath V R
• Rajesh Kumar
• Rajpal Singh
• Ramandeep Singh
• Ranjan Lakra
• Ranjodh Singh
• Ravipal
• Roshan Minz
• Rupinderpal Singh
• S Arumugam
• S K Uthappa
• S V Sunil
• Sameer Dad
• Samir Baxla
• Sanawar Ali
• Sandeep Antil
• Sandeep Singh (International)
• Sandeep Singh (IOC)
• Sandeep Singh (Air India)
• Sankalp Raghav
• Sardar Singh
• Sarvanjit Singh
• Shashi Topno
• Sher Singh
• Shivendra Singh
• Simrandeep Singh
• Simranjeet Singh
• Sudhir Raju Dixit
• Sukhjeet Singh
• Sunil Yadav
• Sunny Samuel
• Tushar Khandker
• Tyron Pereira
• V S Vinaya
• V.Raja
• Vickram Kanth
• Vikas Sharma
• Vikram Ramkaval Yadav
• Vinayak Bijwad
• Viren Rasquinha
• Vivek Gupta
• William Xalxo
• Yuvraj Walmiki
