MUMBAI: The organisers of World Series Hockey have announced the schedule for inaugural edition of the professional hockey to be held from 29 February - 2 April.

The hockey league, involving 59 matches with as many as 56 league matches besides two semis and a final, will kick-start with the Chandigarh Comets taking Bhopal Badshahs on their home venue, Chandigarh.

The organisers have planned a grand opening ceremony preceding the inaugural game in Chandigarh.

In order to grab maximum eyeballs, all the matches will be played during prime time. The league stage will have two matches a day at 7 pm and 9 pm.

The top four teams from the league stage will qualify for the semi-finals to be held on April 1 at 6 pm and 8.30 PM. The venues for the semi-final and the final match have not been finalised.

The grand final will be held on April 2 at 8.30 pm, and the finalist with a higher seed from the league stage will host this game. The league will have four off-days on 13, 18, 22 and 31 March, a day before the crucial semi-final will be held.

WSH technical director Dennis Meredith said, ?The schedule was drawn up in sync with international tournament guidelines for adequate rest to the players and technical officials between matches. This ensures that the standard of hockey in WSH is top-notch at all times and will be an absolute treat for fans.?

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, ?All stakeholders have been taken into consideration while planning the WSH schedule. Floodlit matches in the evenings will provide the passionate hockey fans with an electrifying environment. With all the matches played at prime time, fans will be able to enjoy world class hockey after they?re back home. This is the first time the passionate Indian fans will have access to world class hockey for 34 days of non-stop prime time action.?

The WSH was launched in 2010 by Indian Hockey Federation in partnership with Nimbus Sport, which holds the commercial rights for the tournament.

With less than a month to go for WSH to start, Nimbus is still to officially announce the franchise owners for Bhopal, Chandigarh and Punjab.

Neo Sports Broadcast, a subsidiary of Nimbus, will telecast the matches on its Neo Sports channel. The tournament offers a record prize money of Rs 100 million.

MUMBAI: The organisers of World Series Hockey (WSH) and IHF have announced new date. This will now start on 29 February 2012. The final of the event will be held on 1 April a few days before the start of the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The decision happened after Hockey India announced a camp for the players ahead of the Olympic Qualifiers event. That camp was clashing with the original dates for WSH which was supposed to have kicked off on 17 December 2011.

The case went to the court. The Delhi High court had issued a stay on the PIL filed by a coach Joachim Caravalho who is involved with WSH. Carvalho?s lawyer had said that Hockey India?s camp, which is to be held to prepare the players for the Olympics for 71 days, was organised with the sole purpose of preventing them from participating in WSH. He had said that it was illegal on the part of Hockey India to threaten disqualification of those players participating in the tournament. Recently Hockey India had produced letters signed by players saying that they wanted to take part in the camp ahead of the Olympic qualifiers.

As far as the new dates for WSH are concerned IHF president RK Shetty said, "We are extremely saddened by the intimidation tactics employed by Hockey India to try and deprive Indian hockey players of an opportunity to earn a living from the sport of hockey. As everyone is well aware, the original schedule for WSH was made on the basis that the National prep camp for the Olympic qualifiers was to start on the 24th of January. This date was communicated by HI officials in writing to players as far back as March this year. Unfortunately, HI chose to reschedule the camp to the 11th of December with the obvious intention of disturbing the players and their preparations for WSH. This re scheduling was done after the announcement of WSH dates.

"The intimidation tactics being used by HI are shameful and it?s a pity that our players had to be put through this. With the express intent of protecting our national players from further harassment from HI, the IHF has requested WSH to take the high ground and adjust the dates for WSH. We are pleased to confirm that WSH has accepted the request and the Event will now commence in February after the completion of India?s Olympic qualifiers on 26 February."

Nimbus Sport COO Yannick Colaco said, "The primary objective of WSH is the reinvigoration of the sport of Hockey in India. The players are a very important stakeholder of Indian Hockey and post the request from IHF (on behalf of the players) we have had detailed consultation with our sponsors, franchises, team officials, match officials and other administers of the sport of hockey. We are pleased to confirm the unanimous support of all our stakeholders to the adjustment of WSH dates and we look forward to the launch of this historic event on the 29th of February 2012."

Delhi Wizards owner Sabbas Joseph said, "I strongly believe that WSH would change the face of hockey as we know it, and they have proved it once again through this decision to reschedule the tournament. This will ensure the players are not faced with an ?either or? scenario and as a franchise owner, I share the vision of WSH and IHF and would like to extend complete support towards making WSH a world class event."

Karnataka Lions owner Sagar Pol Chowdhury said, "Our stance has always been that the youth of India will definitely see a new connect with hockey through WSH and this decision is a shining example of that. A league that treats its players with care is bound to succeed. I fully back this difficult decision made by WSH and look forward to providing the right training platform for the Karnataka Lions to perform to potential in February".