Dabang Mumbai News

New Delhi, 19 January, 2014: Hockey India today announced the panel of umpires for Hero Hockey India League second edition. The league will be played across Delhi, Mumbai, Mohali, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi and Lucknow over a period beginning January 25^th to February 23^rd.

Bjorn Isberg will lead the team of four as Tournament Director. 50 year-old Isberg has conducted many events over recent years in his capacity as Tournament Director, including London Olympics in 2012; three FIH Champions Trophy tournaments, including Lahore in 2004, Kuala lumpur in 2007 and Auckland in 2011; and FIH Indoor World Cup 2011 in Poland. He will be supported by Claudius de Sale and Shakeel Quereshi as Assistant Tournament Directors.

Craig Gribble will be the Umpires Manager for the Tournament and will have ten national and international umpires to support him during the Tournament. Gribble expects this to be a wonderful opportunity for the Umpire group to develop and apply their craft to an exciting brand of hockey.

Craig Gribble will have a team of well known international umpires including Diego Barbas from Argentina, Eduardo Lizana from Spain and Jakub Mejzlik from Czechoslovakia. The Indian contingent includes Javed Shaikh, Raghu Prasad, G S Sangha, Pankaj Tyagi, Ripudaman Sharma, Harshwardhan. The entire team of Umpires has established credentials of adjudging many international tournaments.

Speaking on the appointments, Dr Narinder Batra, Chairman, Hero Hockey India League said, “I am extremely delighted to have such a strong and well established panel of technical experts to judge the Tournament. This clearly raises the profile of the League many folds amongst the international audience. The team is amongst the chosen few experts who are well respected across the world for their precise and fair decisions.”

Team of Indian Judges include Devendra Bhatia, Anjali Sharma, Sania Bhatia, Michael Lal, Milind Narvekar and Avinash Srivastava.