KARACHI, Aug 26 A big crowd is expected to turn up at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) here when the first day/night MCB Junior Hockey Super League begins from Sept 1 with three matches will be played each day at 6.30, 9.30 and 11.30pm.

This was announced by Sindh Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, who is also the chairman of the event's organising committee, at a press briefing held at the HCP on Wednesday.

“Besides Rs700,000 for the winner, Rs500,000 for the runners-up and Rs200,000 for the third position holder, there will also be individual prizes for best player (Rs100,000), best goalkeeper and highest scorer (Rs50,000 each) along with a prize of Rs5,000 for the man of each match,” said Dr Shah.

“All in all there is an amount of Rs2 million in prize money. The Pakistan Hockey Federation [PHF] will also take care of the boarding and lodging of the players along with their travel and daily allowances,” he added.

“The tournament features 10 teams. Besides, the Karachi team, which is owned by the City District Government Karachi, there are teams from Larkana, Quetta, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Lahore, Multan and Islamabad,” shared Dr Shah adding that arrangements for their stay in the city have been made at the new Haji Camp.

“We will provide them with 24-hour security and a shuttle service with police escorts,” he said.

“The tournament will be inaugurated by the City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, who will also be the chief guest on the opening day,” he announced.

The final will be played on Sept 18.

“Arrangements to telecast the matches live from the quarter-finals stage onwards have also been made with a private sports channel,” he disclosed.

The matches, according to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) format, will be played on a single-league basis.

Meanwhile, to a question about dealing with overage players in the tournament which is an event for under-18 players anyway, Dr Shah said that the PHF had specially formed a scrutiny committee to deal with the matter.

“The scrutiny committee with Olympian Hasan Sardar as the convener and Barrister Shahida Jamil, Syed M. Zahir Shah, Khawaja Junaid and M. Usman as members will also be looking into the age factor besides other things,” he explained.

Saying so, the organising committee chairman said that he was expecting a large turnout of spectators at the ground.

“It is for the first time that the PHF is organising such a big hockey tournament and if we can have an over 6,000 crowd in a place like Larkana as was seem in the recently-concluded inter-district tournament, it can also happen here,” he thought aloud.

But when reminded that Karachi being a metropolitan city was quite different from an entertainment-starved small city in Sindh's interior, Dr Shah hinted at the PHF's having some plans up its sleeve to involve the crowds as well but all that, including announcement of the other teams' ownerships, would be disclosed by PHF President Qasim Zia in his press conference a day ahead of the tournament.

The PHF has already announced 68 technical officials for the event, including seven tournament officers, 28 judges and 18 umpires. Olympian Abdul Hanif Khan is the tournament director while Khawaja Zarrar Kaleem is the assistant tournament director.