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GPL will help in making golf popular: Harbhajan

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Press Trust of India New Delhi

"GPL is a very good concept. It will make the game more popular and bring in more fans for the game," said the off-spinner, who is the co-owner of Uttarakhand Lions team in the GPL.

Unveiling the team colours, Harbhajan Singh said that this league will give an opportunity to the people of Uttarakhand to come forward and cheer for their very own team.

"We wanted to buy a relatively smaller team from a new place. Established teams like Mumbai, Delhi are bought very quickly, because these are established names. But to support and give a chance to a team from Uttarakhand, means a lot to me," he said, while unveiling the apparel for the team at a function here.

 

Uttarakhand Lions will be fielding 2011 Open Championship winner Darren Clarke, Asian record holder Chapchai Nirat from Thailand and six-time Order of Merit winner Indian star Mukesh Kumar and Indian rising star Shankar Das, who is currently number 9 on the PGTI's Order of Merit list.

"At the auction, there were very few buyers for the Uttarakhand team and so we took the onus on us and decided to take an unknown team and build it into a winning combination. Harbhajan Singh's association will inspire us to perform even better and emerge victorious in the GPL," said team co-owner Tushar Kumar.

Comparing the swing in cricket and golf, Bhajji who rarely plays golf, feels that it appears an easy game on the face of it but it demands very steady hands.

"I do not play golf regularly, but I feel that hitting the moving ball in cricket is tougher than hitting a stationary ball as in golf, which requires more concentration and steady hands."

The league is scheduled to be played at Amby Valley Golf Resort, Maharastra from Feb 8 to 10. The format of the four days play will include two day and night rounds of 14-hole stroke play.

  

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First Published: Jan 31 2013 | 4:05 PM IST

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