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Bangalore Hi-Fliers

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Bangalore Hi-Fliers
Bangalore Hi-fliers emblem
Full nameBangalore Hi-Fliers
LeaguePremier Hockey League
Founded2005
Dissolved2008
Home groundBangalore Hockey Stadium
(Capacity 1,000)
Personnel
CaptainTushar Khandekar
ManagerKannan Krishnamurthy


The Bangalore Hi-Fliers were a Premier Hockey League (PHL) team, based in Bangalore, Karnataka. Initially known as the Bangalore Lions, the team was led by Tushar Khandekar. The Hi-Fliers won the PHL twice, in 2006 and in 2008, more than any other team.

History

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Founding

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The club was formed on the back grounds of inaugural Premier Hockey League in year 2005. It started off with many host of hockey superstars from India, Pakistan and Malaysia. Hi-Fliers is the only teams who in every edition of the PHL displayed tactical and strategic hockey. They have had a good mix of young and experienced players. In the first edition at Hyderabad, their squad had as many as seven members from the national team. They played well in the first leg but failed to maintain the same tempo in the second set of matches and finished a disappointing fourth in the first edition.[1]

Change of name and rise

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The Bangalore Lions

In the year 2006 ING Life Insurance became the official team sponsor of Bangalore Hi-fliers and the team was re-christened as Bangalore Lions in the second and third edition. Lions went on to win league in 2006[2] and in 2007 they finished third,[3] before going back to the original name in PHL - IV and again winning league.

Lions era (2006–2007)

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The Bangalore Lions team after winning the Premier Hockey League in 2006

Team's name was changed to Lions in 2006, the team played brilliantly throughout and finished as the second team in the league to enter the best-of-three finals and pipped local favourites Chandigarh Dynamos to win the second edition. In the third final, Bangalore's Hariprasad scored a classic goal - that one effort earned him a place in the Indian team for the Asian Games and the World Cup. In the third edition, Bangalore failed to make it to the final by three points and finished third.[2][3]

2008

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The Bangalore Hi-fliers team after winning the Premier Hockey League in 2008

Team's name was again changed in 2008 and they were now called Bangalore Hi-fliers. Hi-fliers went on to win the league in 2008. The greatest strength of the team is their star penalty corner specialist Len Aiyappa. The bald-pated drag flick expert collected the Top Scorer award in the first 2005. The team's fortunes depend on the ability of their forwardline to get enough short corners for Len to click. Bangalore had eight internationals in their team and is also served by one of the best goalkeepers in the country, Bharath Kumar Chetri. Its Korean import You Hyo-sik has the ability to make speedy runs and he was an asset to the team. They also had two more foreign players Oliver Rutgers and Sebastian Westerholt from the Netherlands. Skipper Tushar Khandekar was the star to watch in the forward line and he has the seasoned and talented Sandeep Michael and Hariprasad to bolster the attack. Sunil and Cheyanna, two upcoming youngsters are the ones to watch out for in the frontline. Former skipper Arjun Halappa had the ability to play as an attacking midfielder and they had Bimal Lakra, a trusted soldier in the midfield, as the fulcrum of the team's fortunes - who was also ably assisted by VS Vinay. With a mix of good players in all the departments who have the ability to play tactical modern hockey, Bangalore Hi-Fliers looked good for another shot at the title and they did what was expected from them. With their chief coach Ramesh Parameswaran joining the national duties, assistant coach and Olympian Ashish Ballal was in-charge of the coaching staff with another Junior India coach Edward Brient to assist him. Another former international CS Poonacha was the fitness trainer with the secretary of the Karnataka Hockey Association K Krishnamurthy as manager.[4][5][6]

Season by season performance

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[5][7][8][9]

Season Played Won Draw Lost ET-W ET-L GF GA GD Points position
2005 8 3 0 5 - - 19 22 -3 9 Fourth
2006 8 5 0 3 - - 16 12 4 13 Second (league), Champions (play-offs)
2007 12 5 0 4 2 1 24 26 -2 20 Third
2008 6 4 0 1 1 0 13 10 3 14 Second (league), Champions (play-offs)

Players

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As of 2008[10]

Name Country
Tushar Khandekar (Captain) India
Bharat Chettri India
Len Aiyappa India
P T Rao India
Ajay Kumar Saroha[11] India
Arjun Halappa India
Vinaya V S India
Bimal Lakra India
Vikram Kanth India
Cheeyanna India
Hari Prasad India
S V Sunil India
K A Nilesh India
Kamarjit Singh India
Olivier Rutgers Netherlands
Sebastian Westerhout Netherlands
Hyo Kim South Korea

Note: The list of players was obtained from the PHL website.

Personnel

Former players

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[7][8][9][12]

Former players
Name Career Country
Kuttappa 2005 India
Irshad Ali 2005 India
Chandrasekhar Xalxo 2005 India
Pawal Lakra 2005 India
Amar Aiyamma 2005 and 2007 India
Sabu Varkey 2005–2007 India
Sunil Ekka 2005 India
Ravi Kumar 2006 India
Ignace Tirkey 2006–2007 India
Former players
Name Career Country
Mommahad Waqas 2007 India
Gurpreet Singh 2007 India
Paul Blake 2007 India
Laxman Rao NP 2007 India
Bikramjit Singh 2007 India
Suresh Kumar 2006–2007 India
Bimal Lakra 2006–2008 India
Prabodh Tirkey 2005–2007 India
Bipin Fernandes 2006 India

Club captains

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[7][8][9][12]

Dates Name Country
2005–2007 Arjun Halappa India
2008 Tushar Khandekar India

International players

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[7][8][9][12]

International players
Name Career Country
Kuhan Shanmugunathan 2005 Malaysia
Mudassar Ali Khan 2005–2006 Pakistan
Rehan Butt 2006 Pakistan
Jordi Quintana 2006 Spain
Paul Blake 2007 Australia
International Players
Name Career Country
Thijs de Greeff 2007 Netherlands
Sander van der Weide 2007 Netherlands
Olivier Rutgers 2008 Netherlands
Sebastian Westerhout 2008 Netherlands
Hyo Kim 2008 South Korea

Honours

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References

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  1. ^ PHL-1 season review[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ a b PHL-2 season review[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ a b PHL-3 season review[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ PHL 4 Hi-fliers Team Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b "PHL 4 League Standing". Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  6. ^ "PHL 4 Match Results". Archived from the original on 29 November 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d PHL 1 - 2005 Season Review[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ a b c d PHL 2 - 2006 Season Review[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ a b c d PHL 3 - 2007 Season Review[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ Current Bangalore Hi-fliers Squad Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "A great entertainer". Sportstar. The Hindu Group. 2 February 2008. Archived from the original on 19 December 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  12. ^ a b c PHL 4 - 2008 Season Hi-fliers Team Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ PHL-2 Bangalore Lions winners[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ "PHL - 4 Bangalore Hi-fliers winners". Archived from the original on 29 November 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2008.