NEW DELHI, Jan 12: India is launching a new, hyped-up field hockey competition from Thursday in a bid to revive what was once the country's national sport till cricket became an all-consuming passion.

The Premier Hockey League (PHL), to be played over the next 30 days in the southern city of Hyderabad, will feature the country's top talent along with a sprinkling of foreign stars led by Pakistan's world record holder Sohail Abbas.

The PHL will be held under floodlights under new rules suited to generate television revenues between five teams called the Sher-e-Jallandhar (Jalandhar Tigers), Hyderabad Sultans, Maratha Warriors (Bombay), Chennai Veerans (Madras) and Bangalore Hi-fliers.

Matches will be played over four quarters of 17-and-a-half minutes each - instead of the traditional two halves of 35 minutes - and are guaranteed to produce results with extended spells of extra time in which the number of players on the field will reduce.

While 11 players will make up a side during the regulation 70 minutes, only nine will play in the first 15 minutes of extra-time, seven in the next 10 and the teams will keep shrinking till a result is obtained.

There will also be provisions for basket-ball-style time-outs. One match will be played a day from Thursdays to Sundays from 8 pm (1430 GMT), ensuring prime time television coverage by the ESPN-Star Sports channels, better known for beaming live cricket from around the world into millions of Indian homes.

Each team plays the other twice in the league with the side with the maximum points at the end of the league on February 13 being declared the winner. Star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who endorses the ESPN-Star Sports brand, has been featuring in advertisements promoting the PHL and even publicly placed a bet with Team India colleague Harbhajan Singh on who will win.

Tendulkar backs his home team the Maratha Warriors to win. Harbhajan supports the Jalandhar outfit. "Sachin's Ferrari will be mine by next month," Harbhajan joked.

Abbas, who retired from international hockey in December, is among the 10 Pakistani players featuring in the league. The other foreign players are Spanish veteran Juan Escarre and Kuhan Shanmuganathan and Nor Haji Bakar from Malaysia.

Indian Hockey Federation president Kunwar Gill vowed the PHL was here to stay. "Hockey was once our national sport but its popularity got eroded once we started faring badly on the international stage," said Gill.

"We need a tournament like the PHL to win over fans. I am certain that by the time it ends people will be hooked to hockey like they are to cricket." India, once the masters of field hockey, have stumbled badly since winning the last of their eight Olympic gold medals at the western-boycotted Games in Moscow in 1980. They finished seventh at the Athens Olympics last August.

Gill said from next year the PHL will be played at various venues like Bombay, Madras and New Delhi once floodlights had been installed at the grounds there. He also promised to sign up more foreign players.

Prize money worth 7.1 million rupees (158,000 dollars) will be up for grabs with the winner getting 67,000 dollars and the runners-up 22,000 dollars. For the first time in Indian hockey, players will earn tournament fees, ranging from US$2,000 for top stars like Abbas, Escarre and Indian captain Dilip Tirkey to 15,000 rupees (US$340) for the junior-most players.

Millionaire Tendulkar probably makes more in a day than what Tirkey will get for a month's efforts. But at least hockey players see a chance to start earning their dues. -AFP