India unlikelytofacePakinWorldCup
WORLD CUP HOCKEY Hosts India begin their campaign against SA on November 28, Pakistan 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 archrivals 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.
Fans in the two countries have always looked forward to matches between the neighbours, once the two dominant forces in hockey now struggling to compete with the European powerhouses.
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 world ranking, will open the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup against South Africa in a low-key encounter on November 28, the opening day of the competition.
Included in Pool C, India will meet World No 3 Belgium in their next preliminary league match on December 2 and round off their first round engagements 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. The semi-finals are scheduled on December 15 and the final on December 16.
In what is clearly the ‘pool of death’, European title holders and three-time world champions, the Netherlands take on two-time winners Germany (WR:5), Malaysia (WR:12) and Pakistan (WR:13), the World Cup winners in 1971, 1978, 1982, 1994, in Pool D. Defending champions Australia will open their campaign against lowly Ireland on November 30.
IN A NUTSHELL
TOURNAMENT DATES: November 28 to December 16, 2018 VENUE:
Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar NO OF TEAMS