18 November 2004	Thursday	05 Shawwal 1425

NEW DELHI, Nov 17: The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) will launch a professional domestic league in January involving foreign players to help the country regain its past glory in the game.

India have not won a major title since claiming the last of their eight men's Olympic gold medals at Moscow in 1980. The team finished seventh at the Athens Games in August.

Each of the five top tier teams - the league will be played in two levels - will include five foreign players each with both domestic and foreign players signing up financial contracts, IHF president K.P.S. Gill told reporters on Wednesday.

"The premier hockey league is the beginning of a landmark journey of re-capturing the glory of hockey and rebuilding India's supremacy in the game internationally," Gill said.

"The rebuilding has to start at ground level by giving a platform to our players to hone their talent by playing in an active league," he said. The league, offering a total prize money of around seven million rupees ($155,380), will be played over five weeks from Jan 13 in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Many top Asian players now figure in European leagues and the IHF will schedule the league during winter to attract the best talent from Europe as well as major continental sides like South Korea and Pakistan.

Global sports channel ESPN have said they will broadcast the games live for 10 years to help bring in sponsorship which is almost entirely focussed on cricket in India. The games would be played NBA-style, over four quarters in an effort to package the league better. Hockey matches are normally played over 70 minutes in two sessions. -Reuters