Women’s four-nation hockey from Tuesday

NEW DELHI: Australia, Germany, New Zealand and hosts India will vie for top honours in the four-nation under 21 hockey tournament beginning at the Major Dhyanchand National Stadium in the Capital from Tuesday.

India, led by striker Poonam Rani, will start their campaign with a match against New Zealand in the tournament, which is being organised by the Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey committee. Australia and Germany will play the event opener at 1 pm.

“We intend to organise an international competition once every year. But that’s not possible due to fund constraints. We have decided to hold such an event once every four years,” said the chairman of the committee Kamal Chaudhary.

“Our aim is to popularise, encourage and assist in improving the standard of the sports in general and hockey in particular. We wish to inculcate discipline and sportsman spirit among the young women players and teams by organising such events,” he said.

The event will have eight matches, including the classification matches, with the winners getting three points for a win and one for a draw.

The tournament will be played under the new FIH rules which include the new rules on penalty shootout in the event of a draw in the classification matches.

Captain Poonam Rani said her team was confident of putting up a good show.

“It’s a new team, the girls have come together for the first time. But I am confident that the team will do well. The event is also a great opportunity for us to test our skills and build a strong unit for the Junior World Cup in India in 2013,” said Rani.