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The inaugural edition of the PHL kicked-off at the Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad, on January 13, 2005. The PHL is made up of ten teams divided into two tiers, the Premier Division and the First Division. The league follows a round-robin format with all teams playing each other twice.
The PHL incorporates a slew of innovations to make the games more exciting and spectator friendly. The participating teams sport fancy names and boast of foreign players in their ranks. Instead of normal 70-minute hockey games with two sessions, the PHL games have four sessions each of 17.5 minutes. Teams can take time-outs to chalk out new strategies to deal with emerging situations.
The PHL will be telecast live by ESPN-STAR Sports for the next ten years. The company employs twelve television cameras to cover all possible angles and the matches begin at eight in the evening to maximize television viewer ship.
The 2005 edition was won by the Hyderabad Sultans while in 2006, Bangalore Lions defeated Chandigarh Dynamos to emerge victorious.
