Easy wins for AIU, Karnataka in national hockey

The Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Karnataka and Manipur scored 50 goals amongst themselves while hammering hapless opponents in their league rounds of the third Hockey India senior Men's National championship here Monday.

In a Group C match, Hockey Karnataka whipped Goans Hockey 20-0 with Muddappa MK scoring four goals while MG Poonacha and SK Uthappa struck three apiece. Also chipping in with two goals each were BS Biadappa, Nikkin Thimmaiah, Mohan Muthanna and Aiyappa MB.

The AIU thrashed Hockey Gujarat 19-1 with Faizin Kandulana topping the scorers list with a tally of five goals while in another match, Services Sports Control Board beat Hockey Bihar 11-0 and Hockey Manipur hammered Hockey Uttarakhand 10-0 with Victo Singh scoring five goals.

Meanwhile, in a late night development, five players of Namdhari XI Sher Singh Shera, Harpreet Singh Nagra, Gurpreet Singh, Gurwinder Singh Kala and Deedar Singh Dara were found guilty of assaulting Railways player Narad Bahadur in the Sports Hostel after they lost to Railways in a match marred by frequent arguments.

Manoj Bhore, joint secretary of Hockey India and organising secretary of the event said they have recommended a three-year ban on five players and that they have been suspended from the event. Also Namdhari XI will have to pay Rs.25,000 as penalty for the incident, he added.

The results (league):

Group A: Association of Indian Universities 19 beat Hockey Gujarat 1. Group C: Hockey Karnataka 20 beat Goans Hockey 0.Group E: Hockey Jharkhand 5 beat Comptroller and Auditor General 1; Hockey Odisha 7 beat Hockey Himachal Pradesh 1. Group G: Hockey Manipur 10 beat Hockey Uttarakhand 0. Group C: Services Sports Control Board 11 beat Hockey Bihar 0.