K. ARUMUGAM & ERROL D’CRUZ
Addition of Junior version to the Hockey World Cup changed the competitive component field hockey forever. Many nations have built their success story with the fulcrum of junior program for which the Junior World Cup offered a genuine target. Time has proved the fact that adding junior genre in the same decade in which the World Cup proper was instituted, worked wonders for the game.
However, its worthwhile to mention that the first Men’s Hockey World Cup came a good 41 years after football’s ultimate event was instituted.
Barcelona hosted the event in 1971 to supplement the Olympics as the FIH’s showpiece event. FIFA, governing the most popular sport by far on the planet, did so in 1930 when Uruguay staged the event.
When it came to the Junior World Cup, however, hockey more or less kept pace with football. The FIH incepted the event for U-21 players in Versailles, France, in 1979, two years after football led the way.
Pakistan emerged champions beating West Germany 2-0 in the final to emulate their seniors who at Barcelona where they beat Spain 1-0.
Indian juniors in the late 1970s
Football ran its first pinnacle event for juniors, in this case u-20s, in 1977. Hosted by Tunisia, the erstwhile Soviet Union wrested the title after a prolonged battle from the penalty spot over Mexico.
It appears a movement catering to youth sports resulted in a spate of junior world championships in the late 1970s.
Basketball governed by FIBA held their inaugural junior world championship in 1979 and volleyball (FIVB) and handball (IHF) did so in 1977 as well.
Cricket woke up to a youth world championship in 1988 when Australia played hosts but the next event wasn’t held until 1998. Rugby, even later, in 2008 when Wales hosted the u-20 event won by New Zealand.