A novel penalty shoot-out that gives equal chance to the striker and goalkeeper will be introduced in the third edition of the Premier Hockey League next year.
Under the new concept, during a penalty shoot-out, each of the five players of a team will play a one-on-one with the rival custodian. Each player will have eight seconds to start with the ball from the 25-yard line and score.
The new rule for the tournament was announced at a press conference in Delhi on Friday.
The player can have as many shots as possible at goal within the stipulated time, the rule says.
"The rule offers much interesting and competing dimension. Unlike a normal penalty shoot-out, it offers equal chances to attacking as well as defending players," said R C Venkateish, Managing Director, ESPN Star Sports, the rights holders of the PHL.
"The eight-second period was decided after an empirical estimation of time taken to move the ball from the 25-yard line and score the goal," he said, adding it is the first of its kind in hockey at any level.
Venkateish said the prize-money for the tournament, to be held at Chandigarh and Chennai in January-February, is increased from Rs 30 to Rs 40 lakh for the champions and fom Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for the runners-up.
While India's captain Dilip Tirkey will lead the Orissa Steelers, striker Arjun Halappa has been named captain of defending champions Bangalore Lions.
Other captains are: Devesh Chauhan (Hyderabad Sultans), Kanwalpreet Singh (Sher-e-Jalandhar), Viren Rasquinha (Maratha Warriors), Adam Sinclair (Chennai Veerans) and Rajpal Singh (Chandigarh Dynamos).
Meanwhile, veteran striker Dhanraj Pillay's names is conspicuous by its absence from the seven squads that were announced.
Managing Director of Leisure Sports Management, S S Dasgupta, said 21 foreign players would play in various teams.
"Three foreign players will be there in each team; we will announce their names at a later date," he said.
Three young players, based on performances in the Shastri, Nehru and Surjeet hockey tournaments, will be accommodated in these teams.
Venkateish said from next season a qualifying tournament would be introduced from which the top team will qualify for the PHL proper and the bottom placed team in the third edition would be demoted.
PHL III teams (Indians only):
Sher-e-Jalandhar:
Goalkeepers: Maninder Singh, Kamaldeep Singh.
Full-backs: Harpal Singh, Kamalpreet Singh
Half-backs: Baljit S Saini, Prabhdeep Singh, Baljit S Dhillon
Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Devenderpal Singh, Jarnail Singh, Parminder Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Devender Singh, Tejbir Singh.
Chief coach: Balwinder S Saini
Asst coach: Jagdeep Singh
Chandigarh Dynamos:
Goalkeepers: Baljit Singh, Swinder Singh
Full-backs: Jugraj Singh, Gurdip Singh/Sandeep Singh
Half-backs: Jaswinder Singh, Prabhjot Singh, S S Gill
Forwards: Rajpal Singh, Deepak Thakur, Inderjit Chadha, Ravi Pal, Navdeep Singh, Sher Singh, Irshad Ali, Mandeep Singh.
Chief coach: N S Sodhi
Asst coach: Saurabh Bisnoi
Orissa Steelers:
Goalkeeper: Dinesh Ekka
Full-backs: Dilip Tirkey, William Xalxo, Jitender Saroha
Half-backs: Bimal Lakra, Jasbir Singh, Sandeep Sethi
Forwards: Virender Lakra, Bikash Toppo, Sunil Ekka, Roshan Minz, Bruno H Lugun, Daman Deep Singh, Sanjay Yadav
Chief coach: A K Bansal
Asst coach: Pranab K Pattnaik
Hyderabad Sultans:
Goalkeepers: Devesh Chauhan, Pekrelo
Full-backs: Saranjeet Singh, Harpreet Singh
Half-backs: Nitin Kumar, Vikram Pillay, Johnson Ekka
Forwards: Didar Singh, Ajitesh Rai, Sardara Singh, Amar Aiyamma, Diwakar Ram, Rajinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Baljit Singh Chandi.
Chief coach: Mukesh Kumar
Asst coach: Sd. Aquilluddin.
Maratha Warriors:
Goalkeepers: Adrian D'Souza, Gurpreet Singh
Full-backs: Anurag Raghuvanshi, Kuldeep Singh, Ajmer Singh
Half-backs: Gurbaj Singh, Dhananjay Mahadik, Viren Rasquinha, Gaurav Tokhi, Conroy Remedios
Forwards: Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Hemant Gethe, Stanley Fernandes, Bharat Kumar, Shivendra Singh
Chief coach: Mukul Pandey
Asst coach: Murugappan
Bangalore Lions:
Goalkeepers: Bharath Chetri, P T Rao
Full-backs: Ajay Kumar Saroha, Len Aiyappa, Bikramjit Singh
Half-backs: V S Vinaya, Arjun Halappa, Ignace Tirkey, Gurpreet Singh
Forwards: Hari Prasad, Tushar Khandekar, Sabu Varkey, Laxman Rao, Sandeep Michael
Chief coach: Ramesh Parameswaran
Asst coach: Ashish Ballal
Chennai Veerans:
Goalkeepers: Sreejesh P R, Shanmugasundaram
Full-backs: Muthuselvan, Ragunath, Sivabalan, Baljinder Singh
Half-backs: Senthil, Sunil Yadav, Vikram Kanth
Forwards: Adam Sinclair, Rehman, V Raja, Promod Kumar
Chief coach: Md. Riaz
Asst coach: B Ramaswamy.