Hockey India withdraws teams from 2022 CWG

New Delhi, October 5

India today pulled out of next year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games’ hockey competition, citing Covid-19 concerns and UK’s discriminatory quarantine rules for travellers from the country, a day after England’s withdrawal from the junior men’s World Cup in Bhubaneswar over similar reasons.

Hockey India (HI) president Gyanandro Ningombam communicated the federation’s decision to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra in a letter.

Such discriminatory restrictions were not imposed on Indian athletes and officials during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games and this 10-day quarantine requirement for vaccinated sportspersons will affect their performance Gyanandro Ningombam, HI President

HI reasoned that there is only a 32-day window available between the Birmingham Games (July 28-August 8) and the Hangzhou Asian Games (September 10-25).

HI said it can’t risk sending its players to the UK, which has been one of the worst affected by the pandemic.

“You will appreciate that the Asian games is the continental qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and keeping the priority of the Asian Games in mind, Hockey India cannot risk any members of the Indian teams contracting Covid during the Commonwealth Games,” Ningombam wrote. “Therefore, Hockey India will not be sending its men and women teams to Commonwealth Games 2022 and are informing you in advance to kindly notify the organisers to identify reserve teams.”

The UK recently refused to recognise India’s vaccination certificates and imposed a 10-day hard quarantine on travellers from the country even if they were fully vaccinated.

The discrimination was prominently mentioned in Ningombam’s letter to the IOA president, who has issued instructions for co-ordination with the sport’s world governing body FIH for the details of the reserve teams. Batra heads the FIH as well.

“Such discriminatory restrictions were not imposed on Indian athletes and officials during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games and this 10-day quarantine requirement for vaccinated sportspersons will affect their performance,” Ningombam stated. “We feel these restrictions are biased against India and term it as very unfortunate,” he said.

HI’s move comes a day after England pulled out of the junior World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar next month, citing a number of Covid-related concerns and taking “note” of the Indian government’s mandatory 10-day quarantine protocol for all UK nationals. — PTI

Pak confident of getting visas for jr hockey WC

Karachi: The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) is confident of participating in the FIH Junior World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar from November 24 to December 5, after having missed the last edition of the event in India due to visa issues. “We don’t want to see a repeat of what happened last time when the Junior World Cup was held in India in 2016. We have now submitted all documents so there is enough time for the host country to issue us required visas,” he said. In 2016, Pakistan were denied visas by the Indian High Commission citing a delay on the part of PHF in applying for the travel document. PTI