Odisha may host Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup too; doubts over Australia, New Zealand participating | Hockey News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup is scheduled for November 25 to December 5 this year in India, but the tournament is yet to hear the name of the city that will host the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) showpiece junior event.
Until now, it was Guwahati’s name doing the rounds as the venue for the tournament, which will see India defending the trophy it won in 2016. But lately, Lucknow and now Odisha have thrown their hats in the ring as possible hosts.
The FIH, however, waits to hear from Hockey India, with the start of the tournament just over two months away. The women’s edition is scheduled to be held in Potchefstroom, South Africa, from December 5 to 16.
“The host city of the upcoming FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup is not yet confirmed,” the FIH communications department told Timesofindia.com. “However, we are in permanent touch with Hockey India for the preparations of this tournament and are looking forward to a great event.”
Guwahati has been pushed down to third in the list of three cities in the running, sources told Timesofindia.com without elaborating on the reasons. Another source in Odisha said “there have been talks” about the state hosting the tournament.

(India won the last edition of the Junior Men’s World Cup held in 2016 in Lucknow)
Odisha, which extended its sponsorship of the Indian national teams to 2032 after the Tokyo Olympics, is the host of 2023 Men’s World Cup as well. The 2018 Men’s World Cup was also held in Odisha, at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar.
Lucknow, which hosted the 2016 edition of the Junior Men’s World Cup won by India, is also in the running.
Both the cities have the infrastructure and experience of hosting world events.
Repeated attempts to get an official comment from Hockey India remained futile.
Australia and New Zealand opt out?
Timesofindia.com has also learnt about the strong possibility of Australia and New Zealand pulling out of both Junior World Cups in India (men) and South Africa (women).
Hockey sources in Australia said it’s difficult to see the teams travelling amid Covid restrictions on movement.
“Very limited interstate travel here, so really can’t see anyone being allowed to leave,” said the source.
But the officials chose to remain tight-lipped about the development and put the ball in FIH’s court.
“I believe FIH are going to make a press release shortly in regard the teams attending the JWC (Junior World Cup),” said Bob Claxton, secretary general and treasurer of the Oceania Hockey Federation, when contacted by Timesofindia.com
Queries messaged to Hockey Australia’s communications department remained unanswered.

For all the latest Sports News Click Here 

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TechAI is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.