India, Pakistan to lock horns at Asian Champions Trophy
Times News Service
MUSCAT: India and Pakistan will once again renew their rivalry right here in Oman, as the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy begins on Thursday.
The first match of the six nation tournament takes place on Thursday, October 18, and India and Pakistan will play each other a day later on Friday.
The six nations taking part in the tournament include current world champions India, Asian champions Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Pakistan and hosts Oman.
Speaking to Times of Oman, Dato Tayyib Ikram, Chief Executive of the Asian Hockey Federation, said this was a great event for the Sultanate to host.
“There was a bidding process that we asked all the host nations to go through and Oman won that process,” he said. “One of the big commitments Oman needed to have was the upgrading of the existing facilities to reach a professional standard and that has been done ahead of the tournament. For a country to be appointed hosts, there need to be three main criteria for them to fulfil. There must be good facilities for the teams, there must be good facilities for the media and other supporting structures and these facilities must fulfil the requirements of all the stakeholders.
“A tournament like this will not just help develop interest hockey in Oman, but among the expat in Oman as well,” added Ikram. “Oman is not just one nationality it is a package of people from many countries. This will help develop the interest in the sport among both locals and expats alike. Many people don’t know this but Oman has a hockey tradition that goes back 80 years and so this country is the only one in the Middle East that has such a long history in this sport.”
Talib Al Wahaibi, president of the Oman Hockey Association, added: “hockey was played in Oman for more than a century, but then football took over and may be we lost our way a little bit, but now it is time for us to come back to the front.”
With Oman being among the safest nations in the world, he hoped that this would be the start of many such tournaments.
“To the five visiting captains and their teams, I say you have nothing to fear here,” he added. “This is a very safe country, we want you to not worry about anything and we welcome you to your home.”