Bhubaneswar: The Kalinga Lancers will take on Uttar Pradesh Wizards (UPW) in the inaugural match of the fourth edition of the Coal India Hockey India League (HIL) at Kalinga Stadium in the Odisha capital on January 18.
The match schedule was announced by the Hockey India on Saturday.
The month-long event, which will conclude on February 21, features six franchisee-based city teams consisting of star players from India and the rest of the world. The semi-finals and finals would be played in Ranchi on February 20 and 21 respectively.
After its first match against UPW on January 18, Kalinga Lancers will meet Dabang Mumbai (DM) on January 21, Delhi Wave Riders (DWR) on February 5, Jaypee Punjab Warriors (JPW) on February 7 and Ranchi Rays (RR) on February 8 respectively on its home ground at Kalinga Stadium.
The home team will later meet UPW at Lucknow on January 25, RR at Ranchi January 28, DM at Mumbai on January 31, JPW at Chandigarh on February 15 and DWR at Delhi on February 17.
Kalinga Lancers have decided to retain three Indian forwards Lalit Upadhyay, Devindar Sunil Walimiki and defender Gurjinder Singh and two Australian Aran Zalewski (forward) and Andrew Charter (goalkeeper) for the coming two seasons of the HIL.
In the HIL auction, Lancers had bid for Germany's midfielder Mortiz Fuerste for a record $105,000, which is significantly higher than the Indian player Akashdeep Singh ($84,000).
Kalinga Lancers Team: SK Uthappa, Dharamvir Singh, Devindra Sunil Walimiki, Moritz Fuerste, Adam Dixon, Quirijn Caspers (midfielder), Pardeep Mor, Amit Rohidas, Gurjinder Singh, Ananda Lakra, Mathew Wills, Matthew Dawson, Aran Zalewski (defender), Andrew Charter, Abhinav Kumar Pandey (goalkeeper), Malak Singh, Stanil Victor Minz, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Glenn Turner (forward).