New Delhi, The Sports Ministry would like Hockey India to nominate its best teams for the Asian Games amid an ongoing debate on whether separate sides should be finalised for the continental showpiece and the World Cup later this year to ensure players are not burnt out.
While the World Cup will be held from August 15 to 30 in Belgium and the Netherlands, the Asian Games are slated from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Although the two events are not clashing technically but the lack of turnaround time for the players, both men and women, is being seen as a major concern.
However, neither the men’s head coach Craig Fulton, nor his women’s team counterpart Sjoerd Marijne are in favour of sending two teams, insisting that same sides should go for both the high-intensity events.
“There should be two teams ideally and the A teams should be for the Asian Games because that’s an olympic qualifier,” said a ministry source.
he ministry has already conveyed this to the national federations that they should have a highly competitive B team ready for competitions at all times. And in hockey, we have no dearth of players to pick two separate teams keeping in mind the calendar,” he added.
The gold-winners in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the Asian Games would make the cut for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
The biennial World Cup is the marquee competition in the sport and both Fulton and Marijne are expectedly focussed on delivering results after a challenging last season and a topsy-turvy year so far for both teams.
“We will send the best teams in both the Asian Games and World Cup, we haven’t decided or selected the squads yet. We are taking all factors into account,” Hockey India Secretary General Bholanath Singh told PTI when asked for his reaction to the ministry’s view.
Traditionally, burnout concerns have been raised in every year that has featured the Commonwealth Games and the Asiad in close proximity to each other.
However, the upcoming CWG edition in Glasgow features a curtailed roster that does not include hockey alongside a host of major disciplines like shooting, badminton, wrestling and table tennis.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
