Bhubaneswar: The 12th Patia Cup All India A Grade Kabaddi tournament, organised by the Kalinga Kabaddi Academy, will be played at the Club Town Ground in Chandrasekharpur here, November 28-December 1.
Seventeen teams, comprising 11 outstation and six from Orissa will vie for the top honour. The teams will be divided in four groups and top two teams of each group will qualify for the quarterfinals.
Orissa Police, SAI Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Jajpur and the hosts Kalinga Kabaddi Academy are the local sides participating in the three-day meet. The other sides are three-time champions ONGC, last year’s runners-up CRPF, Sonepat Club (Haryana), DDA (New Delhi), Chhattisgarh (state team), Maharashtra Police, Chandan Nagar (West Bengal) and four new entrants Rohtak, ITBP, CISF and Tamil Nadu Police.
The champions will get Rs 2,00,000 while the runners-up will bag Rs 1,00,000 and the losing semifinalists Rs 50,000 each.
The Patia Cup had been started as a state competition in 2005 before it became a national meet in 2010. ONGC is the strongest title contenders as they have a pool of talented players and are led by Jasvir Singh.
The organisers are also expecting national team players and Pro Kabaddi stars Sandip Narwal, Rajesh Narwal, Surinder Nada, Deepak Hooda and few more to play inm the event.
“The matches day/night games will be played on mat,” informed Dillip Mohanty, organising committee member, while addressing mediapersons during a press conference at a city hotel here, Monday. “Our main target is to organise an international level kabaddi meet in the city,” he added.
post news network