Harpal Singh Bedi
New Delhi, 1 September The International Hockey Federation (FIH) Thursday announced that the draw ceremony to determine the pools of the upcoming FIH Odisha Hockey World Cup 2023 will be held on 8 September, at 12 noon at the Convention Centre, Lok Sewa Bhawan, Bhubaneswar .
The World Cup is slated to be held at Bhubaneswar – Rourkela from 13 to 29 January 2023 and involve 16 participating national teams.
Those include India, as the hosts of the competition, whilst Malaysia, Japan and Korea are the other Asian teams. Africa is represented by South Africa, winners of the Africa Cup of Nations.
From Europe, 7 teams – Belgium, England, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France and Wales -have qualified .
Argentina and Chile are the two American teams having booked their ticket for the tournament, while Australia and New Zealand, from Oceania, complete the draw.
The draw will be conducted by FIH CEO Thierry Weil, at a ceremony which will be attended with the Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik
The four top teams which include host India, Australia, Belgium and Netherlands will be placed on the first row of their corresponding Pools based on the FIH World Rankings as per 1 June this year.
The draw will start with Row 4 of each Pool, involving the following teams: South Africa, Wales, Japan and Chile.
It will then continue with Row 3 of each Pool (involving Spain, Malaysia, France and Korea) and conclude with Row 2 of each Pool (with Germany, England, Argentina and New Zealand).
The draw will be streamed live on Watch.Hockey.
The Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the brand-new Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela will host the matches.