ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will miss out on the Federation Internationale de Hockey (FIH) Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 due to not finishing in the top four in the Asia Cup.
Four of Asia’s leading hockey-playing nations – India, Japan, Malaysia and Korea – will see action in the 16-team event, which will begin over nine days in the Indian cities of Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.
Sixteen countries are participating in the Hockey World Cup for the first time, which was earlier limited to only 12 countries.
Despite this, four-time world champions Pakistan, who are ranked 17th in the world, are missing four years of action.
“It is really unfortunate that a country like Pakistan is not part of the 16-team World Cup. We cannot get an easy chance to qualify for the event. It was just a cakewalk, yet we missed it. As a former world champion, I feel very bad and depressed not to see Pakistan as one of the competing teams in India,” said Khawaja Junaid, a member of the 1994 World Cup winning team. .
He said that I am worried about the hockey players of Pakistan who could have got the necessary exposure by playing against the best teams in the world.
For the first time, the FIH Men’s World Cup will be hosted by one country twice in a row as the 2018 edition was also held in the state of India. The Indian city has also hosted the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup in 2021 and the FIH Hockey Pro League in the last 4 years following the FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup in 2018.
Both Bhubaneswar and Rourkela will host matches on the first day of FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023.
The first match will be played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on January 13, where 2016 Olympic gold medalists Argentina will take on the reigning African champions, and winners of the recent inaugural edition of the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup: South Africa.
This will be followed by more Pool-A action between world No. 1 Australia and a fast-improving French side.
