Nagpur: The Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IA & AD) west zone football tournament will begin at South East Central Railway Stadium, Motibagh, from Monday. The five-day tournament will be played under the aegis of the Office of the Accountant General (Audit–II), Maharashtra, Nagpur. Hosts and defending champions, AG Maharashtra, along with Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan teams will vie for the honours in the league-cum-knockout format of the tournament. The tournament will be inaugurated by Deepak Kumar Gupta, DRM SECR, Nagpur. In the opening match, hosts AG Maharashtra will face Rajasthan while Gujarat will square up against Madhya Pradesh in the second league encounter. The winner and runner-up teams will qualify for the IA & AD Inter-Zonal football tournament, which is slated to be held in Kolkata from March 23 to 27. Maharashtra Team: Sumit Pundir (captain), Pawan Rawat, Ashish, Bilal Sheikh, Sukhdeep Singh Sahota, Raju Aknath Gaikwad, Afzal Akhtar, Nachiket Palav, Jang Bahadur, Akbar Siddhique, Alim Sheikh, David Francis, Momin Hashmi, Naquib Akhtar, Anirban Pal, Suryabali Yadav, Aakar Dhanu and Zahid Akhtar. Coach: Rajendra Singh Negi, Manager: Mohammad Asif. TNN
