New Zealand Indian Sports Association Queen's Birthday Tournament 2022 was hosted by Christchurch Indian Sports Club at Nga Puna Wai Stadium, Christchurch from 4 - 6 Jun 2022. Bay of Plenty team won the Women's section, Pukekohe B won the Men's B section and Wellington A lifted the Dhyan Chand Trophy, winning the Men's A section.
This tournament sees a Women's competition and two Men's competitions, known as A and B Section. The Men's A Section of the tournament competes for the coveted Dhyan Chand Trophy which is NZISA's oldest trophy.
Twelve teams were participating this year in the tournament played on Round Robin format:
Women's Teams
Men's Teams
and
The tournament has a rich history and is a premier event that aims to showcase Indian hockey from its eight member clubs from Auckland, Central Districts, North Harbour, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Christchurch, Pukekohe and Wellington.
The first Coronation Tournament, which later became today's Queen's Birthday Tournament, was held at Maidstone Park in Wellington over the Sovereign's Birthday Weekend in 1953. Wellington Indian Sports Club, which was founded in 1935 (becoming the first Indian Sports Club) and Auckland Indian Sports Club, which was founded in 1936, participated in the inaugural Coronation Tournament.
The tournament got an enthusiastic response and led to the formation of the New Zealand Indian Central Sports Organisation (later rechristened as New Zealand Indian Sports Association) with the objective, "To satisfy a long-felt need to co-ordinate and promote participation in sport by Indians living in New Zealand". NZICSO was founded with a belief that it would showcase the Indian sporting talent and provide greater opportunities and incentives to compete in first-class sports competitions.
Over the years, the tournament has become one of the most anticipated and followed tournament, and this year was no different with the community turning up in big numbers over the three days to witness brilliant hockey being played.
Jaya Bhana of Christchurch Indian Sports Club lauded the community participation, "It was great to see the Christchurch Indian community come in great number and support their team and the tournament itself."
The Dhyan Chand Trophy, awarded to the winning Men's A hockey team at the tournament, was donated by New Zealand Indian Central Association. The first Dhyan Chand Trophy was won by Wellington when first NZCISO Hockey Tournament was held in 1963 in Wellington.
This year saw the Dhyan Chand Trophy come back to Wellington as the team which remained undefeated, beat the Pukekohe A by 1-0. Sajan Patel scored the winning goal.
Wellington A Coach Hemant Lala was incredibly proud of his team, "this result didn't just come about by accident, planning for the weekend began 5 minutes after losing the shoot-out to Auckland in 2021."
Led by captain Shayam Bhana, Wellington Mens A played brilliant game throughout the tournament with determination and ability to stay calm under pressure.
The tournament next year will be played at Wellington over the Queen's Birthday holiday in 2023.
Live streaming services for YouTube and Facebook was provided by Local Gecko Productions and the Tournament was supported by One Foundation, Raj Bhana Bayleys Real Estate, Dawson Insurance, Radar Direct and The Property Boss.