Sport - Hockey

India offers to host Champions Trophy

Chennai: India has offered to stage the Champions Trophy in the event of the International Hockey Federation being forced to shift the venue from Lahore, consequent to the fear of withdrawals of more teams citing security concerns. The championship is scheduled at Lahore from December 1 to 9.

The pull-out of Olympic champion, Australia has triggered speculation that Spain may also follow suit. This is for the second time that Australia is making itself unavailable stating security concerns. It withdrew in 2004, paving the way for India to be part of the event after the Olympics in Athens.

Even in 2001, the FIH was compelled to shift the venue to Rotterdam fearing security problems for the teams.

India is willing to step in should the change become inevitable for the FIH. Although India is not part of the elite group, the officials feel it would be a splendid chance to be in the top league as the host.

A chance like this will also help India immensely in its effort to preparing for the Olympic qualifiers. It is premature to speculate on the reaction of the FIH to the proposal.

At the moment everything is fluid, and Lahore may well host the event with Australia replaced with England, Argentina or even New Zealand.

What perhaps lends strength to IHFs offer is the difficulty for European cities to come forward to stage the event. The schedule is already tight, and Europe is in the throes of the Nations Cup in Manchester next month. This event will determine the three Olympic qualifiers from the continent. Again, it may not be feasible for any country in Europe to have the event late in November or on the same dates, from December 1 to 9 this year, because of the winter.

For the top six teams, the Champions Trophy this year is viewed as the preparations for the 2008 Olympics at Beijing.

So, the teams may not object to visit the sub-continent, be it Lahore or Chennai, where the IHF is prepared to host the event. K. Jothikumaran, Secretary, Indian Hockey Federation, discussed the issue with the President, K.P.S. Gill.

Subsequently, a letter was forwarded to the FIH office in Lausanne about India’s willingness to step in as the alternate venue to Lahore.

The IHF is working on the assumption that Chennai would be ideal in terms of infrastructure and weather conditions in December.

The city is now equipped with the second synthetic pitch at the YMCA College, not very far from the main Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium. Moreover, the city has hosted the prestigious event twice — in 1996 and 2005.

Mr. Jothikumaran is confident that given the chance the IHF would rise to the occasion to ensure the continuity of an important event in the FIH calendar.

He however agreed that a lot of work needed to be attended to if the event comes back to Chennai, which is bracing itself to conduct the seventh Asia Cup from September 1 to 9.

How the FIH addresses the problems confronting it following the withdrawal of Australia for the second time and the possibility of a few more expressing concern over the security situation in Lahore remains to be seen.

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