Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has received bidding dossiers from Australia, Germany, India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Spain to host the next edition of FIH’s flagship event for Men or Women. Bidding countries had to indicate until the deadline of 31 January 2019 also their preferred time window, either 1-17 July 2022 or 13-29 January 2023.

The following bids have been received:

For the preferred time window 1-17 July 2022:
– Germany: Men’s or Women’s World Cup
– Malaysia: Men’s World Cup
– Spain: Men’s World Cup

For the preferred time window 13-29 January 2023:
– Australia: Women’s World Cup
– India: Men’s or Women’s World Cup
– New Zealand: Women’s World Cup

FIH will now start the evaluation process of the bids. The Executive Board will make the final decision on both hosts in June 2019.

FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: “FIH is glad to have received such strong bids. This confirms how appealing our events are. We’re looking forward to two great FIH World Cups, both Men’s and Women’s, and a lot of excitement for players and fans!”

Chennai (Tamil Nadu), 20 January 2019: Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu beat Central Secretariat 4-3 in a high-voltage Final encounter to win the 9th Hockey India Senior Men National Hockey Championship 2019 (B Division) on Sunday. Earlier, in the Bronze Medal Match, Sports Authority of India beat Bengaluru Hockey Association 5-1.

In a tense final match, the two teams enthralled the evening spectators as they fought to stay in lead from hooter-to-hooter. It was Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu who stayed ahead in goal tally with their first goal in the 12th minute through D Muthuseelvan. V Vinod Rayer (21′), P Dhamu (38′), V Vinodhan (56′) scored a goal each to put their team in lead while Govind Singh Rawat (20′, 34′) scored twice to equalise and G Gnanavel (41′) scored a goal to equalise in the third quarter which saw the match remain tense in the fourth quarter. But the home team remained calm and showcased good attack to find an opportunity in the 56th minute to win the match.

Earlier, Sports Authority of India were dominating as they beat Bengaluru Hockey Association 5-1 in the Bronze Medal match. Vishal (12′), Rahul Kumar (22′), Boby Singh Dhami (37′), Naveen (45′) and Mohit Kumar (56′) scored for the winning team while Harish Mutagar (12′) scored the lone goal for Bengaluru Hockey Association.

Pune (Maharashtra), 17 January 2019: The Semi-Finals in the Under-17 Women’s hockey competition of the 2nd Khelo India Youth Games 2019 took place here today which saw Jharkhand and Haryana advance to the Final to set up an exciting encounter for the Gold Medal. Jharkhand made their way to the Final with a 4-3 victory over Odisha in the first Semi-Final, while Haryana outplayed Punjab to defeat them 4-0 in the second Semi-Final.

It was a match of two halves in the first Semi-Final as it was Odisha who took a 3-0 lead after just 23 minutes. But Jharkhand made a stunning comeback in the third and fourth quarters to come from behind to secure a 4-3 win. Goals for Jharkhand were scored by Sanjana Horo (32′), Dipti Kullu (38′), Poonam Mundu (48′) and Beauty Dung Dung (60′) while it was Neha Lakra (6′), Mukta Jojo (15′) and Jyoti Chhatri (23′) who had given Odisha the lead in the crucial encounter.

The second Semi-Final saw Haryana dominate the match from the opening quarter itself and produce a stunning display to defeat Punjab 4-0. A successful Penalty Corner from Neelam in the 28th minute saw Haryana take an important lead in the match, which was then doubled in the 47th minute through a Penalty Stroke by Deepika. Haryana’s Neelam scored off a Penalty Corner again in the 50th minute to extend her team’s lead to three goals, and it was Manju Chorsiya who scored from a Penalty Corner in the 53rd minute to secure the victory which ensures Haryana’s berth in the Final.

Jharkhand and Haryana will contest in the Final of the Under-17 Women’s hockey competition in the 2nd Khelo India Youth Games 2019 will take place here on Saturday. 19th January 2019 at 1100hrs IST. While, Odisha and Punjab will be competing for the Bronze Medal at 0900hrs IST.

New Delhi, 09 January 2019: With a vision and emphasis on building a strong player base ahead of the 2021 Junior World Cup and the 2020, 2024 Olympic Games, Hockey India High Performance and Development Committee met on Monday, 7 January 2019. The meeting was attended by Chairman Dr. RP Singh and members including Olympians Harbinder Singh, B.P. Govinda and Syed Ali. Basis their discussions the Committee has recommended to reassign Dronacharya Awardee Harendra Singh as the Coach for the Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team. The offer has been made by Committee Chairman Dr. R.P Singh for the said position to Harendra Singh for taking charge of the Junior Men team commencing from the camp slated to start in March 2019.

The mercurial rise of some of India’s top junior hockey players under the tutelage of Harendra Singh between 2013 – 2016 when the India Colts lifted the historic Junior Men’s World Cup in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and Harendra Singh’s abilities of grooming youngsters has been the key reasons for the think-tank at Hockey India to arrive at this recommendation.

Though the year 2018 was very disappointing for the Indian Men’s Hockey Team with results not going as expected, Hockey India believes investing in the junior program which will reap long-term benefits.

In the meanwhile, Hockey India will shortly be advertising and will invite applications for the position of the Chief Coach of the Indian Men’s Hockey Team which will be returning to training camp in February 2019 for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup scheduled to commence from 23 March 2019. In the interim the team will be overseen by Hockey India High Performance Director, David John and current Analytical Coach, Chris Ciriello.

New Delhi, 28 December 2018:  Looking back at the year 2018 that saw Indian Women’s Hockey Team win a historic Silver Medal at the 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang and Silver at Women’s Asian Champions Trophy, Skipper Rani emphasized that her team no longer fears world’s top teams. “Though we would have preferred to win Gold Medal at the 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang as well as the Asian Champions Trophy, I believe overall, we had a good outing in 2018. Beating England 2-1 at the Commonwealth Games, a 1-1 draw against them at their home turf during the Women’s World Cup in London and a low-scoring 0-1 loss to Australia in the Semi-final at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games has given the team tremendous confidence and a self-belief that we can give top teams a run for their money in big-ticket tournaments. We are no longer considered an underdog team by our opponents and that’s our biggest takeaway from 2018,” emphasized the Skipper from Haryana.

While their good show at the Women’s World Cup in London where they made the Quarter Finals for the first time in four decades spurred their World Ranking to career-best World No.9, Rani feels the Indian team has great potential to improve further in future events. “The brighter side of 2018 was our U-18 team doing well at the Youth Olympic Games where they won a Silver Medal. With fresh talent coming into the core group, the seniors too want to improve their individual performance to stay relevant to the team. There is healthy competition within the core group and the pool of players is bigger now with a good mix of youngsters and seniors who have played together for more than four years. I’m quite confident if we continue to improve at the pace we are at this moment, we stand a good chance of climbing up the World Ranking further,” she said.

She also added that working with an elite hockey star like Glenn Turner who was invited by Hockey India to conduct a special camp for forwards has helped the team tremendously.

“In December, we had a special coaching camp for strikers where we worked under Australian great Glenn Turner. He gave critical inputs after watching us play closely. Though he did not drastically change how we play, his detailing and inputs were extremely helpful in positioning of forwards within the striking circle. We had struggled in this area during our past events, missing scoring opportunities. Now when we return to the National Camp, we will further ensure what we learnt from him is implemented,” she said.

Speaking of the year 2019, Rani said the team’s ultimate goal will be to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. “We will be reporting to the National Camp in the first week of January and begin our preparations in this crucial Olympic cycle where we will be playing Olympic Qualifiers. Though personally I still regret not winning the Gold Medal at the Asian Games which would have earned us direct qualification, I believe the result has only motivated and instilled a fighting spirit in us,” Rani concluded

Bhubaneswar, 16 December 2018: As the curtains rolled down on Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018, hockey fans witnessed one of India’s most cherished and celebrated sportsman Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar attending the Finals here at the Kalinga Stadium on Sunday, 16th December 2018.

Tendulkar, who amassed over 34000 runs in international cricket, has been the greatest cricketer the country has ever seen. Making a record six World Cup appearances, the Little Master is no stranger to the hype, expectations and buzz around a World Cup winning the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in his hometown Mumbai.

The former India cricketer gave away Player of the Tournament award at the presentation ceremony after the Final of the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018 to Belgium’s Arthur Van Doren.

“Whatever I have experienced here today is truly magnificent and this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of state government and Hockey India. The atmosphere is incredible and I also want to thank all players for making this what it is,” said Tendulkar.

In the Final, Belgium beat the Netherlands in sudden death by eking out a 3-2 win in the penalty shoot-out to win their maiden World Cup. Earlier, Australia beat England 8-1 in the Bronze Medal match.

New Delhi, 30 November 2018: As part of their preparations for the Olympic Qualifiers, Hockey India has invited former Australian striker Glenn Turner to work with the Indian Women’s Hockey Team strikers in a Special Camp for forwards starting December 1 at the Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru.

The Canberra Hockey star who was part of the World Cup-winning Australian squad in 2010 and 2014, will arrive in Bengaluru on Friday night for the eight-day National Camp.

Speaking about the National Camp, Sjoerd Marijne, Chief Coach of the Indian Women’s Hockey Team said, “It is good for our strikers to use the experience of Glenn Turner. As a striker, his positioning in the circle was critical for his team scoring goals and the positioning of strikers is one of the key areas we want to improve on.”

Marijne further emphasized that the camp will also help build leadership among the players. “Glenn is someone who has experienced the pressure of performing top level hockey and he was part of the Australia’s leadership group and often worked with younger players in his team. We will ask him to share his experience as a leader too and I am sure our strikers can benefit immensely from this camp,” added Marijne.

The players named in the strikers camp includes Skipper Rani, Youth Olympic Games Silver Medallist Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Vandana Katariya, Anupa Barla, Priyanka Wankhede, Preeti Dubey, Mumtaz Khan, Jyoti, Poonam Rani and Leelavathy Mallamada.

The camp concludes on December 8.

Strikers in Camp:

–          Rani

–          Lalremsiami

–          Navneet Kaur

–          Navjot Kaur

–          Rajwinder Kaur

–          Vandana Katariya

–          Anupa Barla

–          Priyanka Wankhede

–          Preeti Dubey

–          Mumtaz Khan

–          Jyoti

–          Poonam  Rani

–          Leelavathy Mallamada

Bhubaneswar, 24 November 2018: The Netherlands, ranked No.4 in the World, arrived Saturday evening for the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018. Grouped in Pool D, being pegged as the ‘Pool of Death’ with heavy weights Germany, Pakistan and Malaysia, the Dutch are looking for tough matches right from the start. “Bhubaneswar is a great place to be and play hockey in front of an amazing crowd. We are in a tough group with strong teams. We play Malaysia first and we need to make sure we keep our heads down and play our best every match,” asserted Max Caldas, Head Coach of the Netherlands.

Speaking of the team’s excitement to be back in Bhubaneswar, experienced player Billy Baker said, “We have won almost every match we have played this season and we have also had really tough preparations for the tournament. We are aware of the Bhubaneswar crowds who come in large numbers and we want to enjoy playing in front of them and also use their support to feel motivated.” The Netherlands begin their campaign on 1 December 2018.

World No.3 Belgium too arrived few minutes after their nemesis the Netherlands and shared their anticipation to play at the iconic Kalinga Stadium again. “We are arriving after three months of solid preparations. We pretty much trained full time and the preparations were heavy. The guys are really fit and sharp. We are excited to get going,” said Belgium Skipper Thomas Briels.

Belgium are grouped with hosts India, Canada and South Africa in Pool B and begin their campaign against Canada on 28 November 2018. Meanwhile, England and New Zealand too arrived late Friday night and were already on the pitch Saturday to make get a feel of the newly-laid turf at the Stadium.