FIH mulling increase in hockey squad strength

BANGALORE: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) said on Tuesday that it would try to increase the squad strength of national teams in the forthcoming multi-sport events as the present number was rather restrictive.

The magic number of 16, two less than the number stipulated by FIH in its tournaments such as the World Cup and Champions Trophy, has forced teams into experimentation, with the goalkeeper becoming the first casualty.

Most participating nations in the Commonwealth Games, including India, Australia, England and Pakistan have named only one goalkeeper in the 16 so that they get an extra field player for substitutions during a game.

Australia have named Nathan Burgers, who turned out for his country in its successful World Cup campaign in the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi, New Zealand Kyle Pontifex, India Bharat Chetri, Pakistan Imran Shah and England James Fair.

The women’s teams of New Zealand, Australia and England too have followed the same norm while Canada and South Africa have named two goalkeepers in both their men’s and women’s squads.

Apparently, the FIH is keen on ironing out this anomaly. “The FIH is in dialogue with the International Olympic Committee about this matter and will try to obtain a change. When and whether this will take place is very much in the gift of IOC,” FIH competitions manager Martyn Gallivan told TOI.

“It is FIHs view that in the first case we should try to obtain this change for the Olympic Games, as we believe others would then follow suit. However, if the IOC should be unable to make a change, then it would be a case of approaching the Commonwealth Games Federation and the Olympic Council of Asia to see if a change could be effected for Glasgow 2014 and Incheon 2014 respectively, the latter of which would need to be undertaken in conjunction with the Asian Hockey Federation,” he said.

Australia’s hockey coach Ric Charlesworth made it clear that he would have been happy had he been allowed an 18-member team so that he could have included two goalkeepers and have had 16 field players to choose his squad for every match. “It would have been ideal especially with games in the middle of the day,” he told TOI.

New Zealand women’s team coach Mark Hager was quoted as saying in the NZ Herald that he would prefer more field players in a squad of 16.