New Zealand may benefit from chaos in India

By Mihir S Vasavda | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

New Zealand may emerge as the unlikely beneficiary from the standoff between the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the Indian authorities over the hosting rights of the Champions Trophy.

The tournament, which is rated behind the Olympic Games and World Cup in the international hockey calendar, is supposed to be held in New Delhi from December 3 to 11.

But the FIH has temporarily taken away the tourney from the capital following the sports ministry’s decision to merge Hockey India (HI) and Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).

FIH president Leandro Negre is expected to meet the authorities from both the federations in India as well as the sports minister Ajay Maken to resolve the issue when he travels to India in mid-September.

If the talks fail, then the tournament, which features the top-eight countries of the world, will be taken away from India.

It has been learnt that the FIH has approached New Zealand in case New Delhi will be scrapped as hosts.

If the tournament is awarded to New Zealand, then it is likely that India won’t be allowed to participate as well. India, ranked ninth, are competing in the tournament on the virtue of being the host and if Auckland is chosen as the venue, then New Zealand, ranked seventh, will be a part of it.

The New Zealand hockey federation has to decide on whether it is prepared – financially and logistically – to commit to the tournament, which the FIH insists must be played on the original dates.

Auckland has been decided as the proposed standby venue. Malaysia and Dubai were the two other countries FIH was mulling over but the formers poor ranking (15th) and the extremely hot conditions in the Gulf country in December prompted FIH to look at Auckland, sources said. HI secretary general Narendra Batra said he wasn’t aware of any such thing.

“Mr Negre will be visiting India in the middle of this month. But I haven’t heard of the FIH keeping any other city as a standby venue,” he said.