Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey stated that India could travel to Pakistan for the Olympic qualifier tournament if the men’s team fails to earn an automatic berth by winning gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games next month.
“We are hopeful of getting the job done in Hangzhou [China]. But in the event, we don’t do it there, the Indian team will also travel to Pakistan for the Olympic qualifier, like Pakistan has travelled to India for the Champions Trophy. Spain will also be hosting a qualifying tournament, so we can travel to either country if required,” Tirkey said in a press conference here on Wednesday.
The Olympic qualifiers will be held in both Lahore and Valencia in January next year, where six teams can confirm their Paris berths. Since the turn of the century, India has only travelled to Pakistan for two bilateral test series (2004, 2006) and the 2004 Champions Trophy.
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Pakistan is in India for the Asian Champions Trophy, a precursor to the Asian Games, which begins on Thursday. This is the north-west neighbours’ first visit to the country since the 2018 men’s World Cup.
Both Malaysia and South Korea’s head coaches raised concerns over the timing of the Asian Champions Trophy. FIH president Tayyab Ikram differed in his assessment.
“It is a proven fact that you need peak competition before one month to prepare for a competition. I say this from a high-performance point of view and that most of the coaches are happy to be a part of it. There is always one person who you cannot satisfy who has already made other plans. If you tell me that this Champions Trophy will not help, and all these six teams should stay at home until the Asian Games, I’m sorry to say that it will not happen. Some of these sides will play even after the Champions Trophy, including some Test matches. I think this is very well-fitted for the preparation of the Asian Games. When you are playing most of the main competitors and aiming for a better Paris Olympics qualification,” said Ikram.
During the World Cup earlier this year, Ikram said the FIH was in the process of tweaking the existing penalty corner rule, keeping in mind the safety of the defenders. The FIH had sent out a communication to the national federations about the trial of the new penalty corner rules, which has received mixed responses from current players.
Tayyab said, “In the last few years, the penalty corners suggested that the speed of the ball and the conversion is a bit out of control. Secondly, we need to consider the protection of the players and the protective equipment. It is just a trial. Let this go into trial and you will not see a surprise element. Because of previous experience, I have been talking about dead moments in games for years and the top high-performance coaching force came to the conclusion that restart is a dead moment and we need to get rid of restarts.
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