C'ship to begin sans top stars

The Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) decided to hold the National Hockey Championship this month without some of the top players, who are interested in taking part in German leagues.

"Today [Thursday] I talked to the federation president and he gave us the nod to hold the championship as per the schedule," BHF general secretary Abdus Sadeque said. "However, we are giving the clearance to those players who want to play in Germany instead of the national championship."

The game's governing body had sent the invitation to the districts and service teams and are now waiting for their entries before the championship gets underway on April 27. The last national hockey championship was held in April 2015.

"With the expectation of 40 participating teams, we have already made a format of eight groups of five teams so that each team can play four group-stage matches," said tournament committee secretary Ehasan Rana, adding that they would provide the expenditures for food and accommodation as well as one-way ticket fare.

Rana informed that they would pick players for the national team from the championship if anyone stood out.