CHANDIGARH: Star-packed and holders hosts India are the strong contenders in the 107th LG All India Open Amateur Golf which tees off tomorrow at the Chandigarh Golf Club here. Eight nations teams are in fray in one of the world's oldest National Opens.

The hosts' team comprises No.1 on the LG Indian Amateur Golf Tour Abhishek Jha, three-time winner in the current season and No.2 Manav Das, No.3 on the Order of Merit Gagan Verma, three-time Sri Lankan Open Amateur winner and No.4 Simarjeet Singh.

India's main opponents are from Sri Lanka and Chinese Taipei. Defending champion K Prabagaran leads the Lankan challenge along with LG Eastern India winner Mithun Pereira, Chinese Taipei have Chi-Hsien Hsieh and Tao Huang in their ranks. The other teams include Nepal, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Iran.

The tournament begins with a two-day strokeplay championship which will act as qualifying round. The top 64 players emerging from the qualifying round will be seeded thus and then will then battle it out in the match-play format with the 36-hole final slated for January 20. The strokeplay championship will also decide the team championship.

"I would like to stress the growing popularity of the LG Indian Amateur Tour which has been regularly attracting international players even during the other legs. I am also excited by the new crop of juniors like Rahul Bakshi, Rashid Khan and Amanjyot Singh who will join the amateur ranks in the coming seasons. I am sure that the Tour will be as competitive as the professional circuit and would rate one amongst the best in the world," said Wg. Cdr. Satish Aparajit, Secretary General Indian Golf Union.

TeamsIndia: Gagan Verma, Manav Das, Abhishek Jha, Simarjeet Singh.

Nepal: Tashi Ghale (Player/Team Manager). Rupak Acharya
Malaysia: Akhmal Tarmizee Bin Mohd Nazari, Haziq Bin Hamizan, Edmund Jonathan Au, Muhammad Arie Bin Ahmad Fauzi.

Sri Lanka: K Prabagaran, Mithun Parera, K A Chandradasa, J M D Indika, Lal Wickrematunge – Hon. Secretary, SLGU (Team Manager)
Pakistan: Mohammad Omar Ghias (Team Manager), Muhammad Safdar Khan, Tariq Mehmood, Aadil Jehangir, Danyaal Jehangir. Reserves:, Muhammad Roheel, Sajid Khan. Salman Jehangir (private entry).

Bangladesh: Shahid (Team A), Zamal Hossain Mollah (Team A), Md Shakhwat hossain Shohel (Team B), Md Liton Hawlader (Team B), A. K. Fazle Rabbi (Team Manager).
Chinese Taipei: Chi-Hsien Hsieh (Team A), Tao Huang (Team A), Chien-Yao Hung (Team B), Hao-Sheng Hsu (Team B), Yu-Sung Du (Coach).

Iran: Ali Jome Gholizadeh Shehni, Mohammadreza Sheyni, Eraj Ghanbari Birgnai , Ahmad Gholi Bahadori Birgani, Saeid Barati. Hedayat Yazdi (coach), Shahram Beug Zadeh (supervisor), Ali Mohammad Jafari Nasir (doctor), Alireza Morad Hajati (Federation representative), Soltanmorad ally (Oil Com.representative) and Nasrolah Afshoun (supervisor).