India unlikely to face Pakistan in 2018 Hockey World Cup
SCHEDULE Hosts begin their campaign against SA on November 28, Pak in tough pool with Netherlands, Germany
MUMBAI: When India last hosted the Hockey World Cup in New Delhi in 2010, Rajpal Singh’s team started off with a blockbuster encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan.
Egged on by a vociferous 30,000-strong crowd that had packed the National Stadium to the rafters, the hosts registered one of their most memorable wins, beating Pakistan 4-1 in a pulsating encounter that exorcised demons of the humiliating 1-7 defeat suffered in the 1982 Asiad final at the same venue.
However, when India host the hockey World Cup for the third time in November-december this year in Bhubaneswar, they will not be playing Pakistan as both teams are in separate pools.
For millions of fans on either side of the border, any tournament starts and ends with the clash between the arch-rivals, matches that transcend the domain of sports encounters to that of political one-upmanship.
Till now, India and Pakistan have played five times in World Cup with the former leading 3-2 in head-to-head.
But Bhubaneswar may not witness an India-pakistan clash altogether — not even in the knockout phase.
With 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each for preliminary round-robin stage and only top two teams having a chance of advancing to the next round, Pakistan, pitted with powerhouses Netherlands and Germany, are in danger of not making it to the knock-outs.
India, placed in an easier pool thanks to their superior ranking, will open the World Cup against South Africa on November 28.
Included in Pool C, India will meet World No 3 Belgium in their next league match on December 2 and against Canada on December 8, according to the schedule released by (FIH) on Wednesday.
The top team of each group enter the quarter-finals directly. The second-placed teams will have to play crossover matches.