By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : The men’s Champions Trophy hockey tournament commencing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is of more than just passing interest to the Indian hockey team preparing for next year’s Olympic qualifier.
So much so that former India captain and right-half M.M. Somaya, who is also the Indian team’s technical director, has been deputed to attend the eight-nation tournament that commence at the Bukit Jalil Stadium Thursday.
The presence of Great Britain in the elite tournament that has been expanded from the traditional six teams to eight holds special significance for the Indians. Great Britain are India’s main opponents in the Olympic qualifying tournament to be held in Santiago, Chile, Mar 1-9 next year.
“Of course, we will be recording all the matches of the Champions Trophy with an obvious special interest in Great Britain’s matches. Somaya will be leaving for Kuala Lumpur shortly and he will provide us useful data on all the teams with specific reference to Great Britain,” said chief coach Joaquim Carvalho in a chat with IANS.
The other teams participating in the Santiago qualifiers are Bangladesh, Chile, Mexico and Austria.
Carvalho along with the Asia Cup winning team is presently in Hyderabad for a felicitation function where plots will be distributed to the members of the squad.
“The Champions Trophy will provide us valuable information on the current form of all the top teams and the new trends, if any. There is plenty of data to be gathered and this information will certainly help us in our preparations for the Santiago event,” he explained.
Only the winner of the qualifying tournament in Santiago will make it to the Beijing Olympic Games along with two other qualifiers who will emerge from similar tournaments in New Zealand (April 5-13) and Japan (Feb 2-10).
Besides the three qualifiers, the Olympic Games men’s draw includes China (hosts), Korea (Asian Games champions), Pakistan (Asian Games bronze medallists, extra quota based upon the World Hockey team rankings after BDO World Cup 2006), South Africa (African Olympic Qualification tournament champions), Canada (Pan American Games champions), Netherlands (Euro Nations champions), Spain (Euro Nations runners-up), Belgium (bronze medallists at Euro Nations) and Australia (Oceania Cup champions).
Great Britain, along with the Netherlands, Australia, Korea, Germany, Spain, Pakistan and hosts Malaysia, comprise the Champions Trophy field. The tournament was shifted to Malaysia from the original venue Lahore due to the fluid political scenario in Pakistan.
Pakistan were compensated with inclusion in the draw as also Great Britain, who as England, had finished fifth in the 2006 World Cup though on the International Hockey Federation ranking list, they are a rung below India at No.9.