The football World Cup, played in 1970 in Mexico, had mesmerised followers of soccer with Brazil’s Pele becoming a household name all over the globe. Pele’s side had brushed aside all competitions and finally routed Italy 4-1 in the final to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy. A year later, the World Cup for Men’s field hockey was played for the first time. Till then, the Olympics, held every four years, was the only global hockey tournament which virtually determined the world champions.
A brainchild of Air Marshal Nur Khan of Pakistan, it got the nod of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the first championship was held at the Real Club de Polo grounds, Barcelona, Spain in October 1971. It was initially conducted every two years till 1975. It was held again after a gap of three years and since 1982, the tournament is organised every four years.
Though the FIH had decided to allot the first World Cup hockey championship to Pakistan, it could not materialize due to the prevailing political situation in that country and was subsequently shifted to Barcelona. The Bangladesh liberation war was raging at that time as the then East Pakistan rebelled wanting to be a free country. Today it is known as independent Bangladesh.
A Women’s Hockey World Cup was started in 1974 by the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) which organised the event till 1981. The IFWHA merged with the FIH in 1982 and ever since the women’s hockey World Cup is also conducted by the FIH.
Pakistan, which has won the trophy for the maximum number of four times (1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994), enjoys a strong link with the World Cup as the trophy, was designed by Bashir Moojid. It was presented to the then FIH President Rene Frank by Pakistan’s Ambassador to Belgium in Brussels on March 27, 1971.
The trophy consists of a silver cup with an intricate floral design surmounted by a globe of the world in silver and gold positioned on a base inlaid with ivory. At the top is a model hockey stick and a ball. Inclusive of the base, the cup’s height is 650 mm and it weighs 11,560 gram which includes 895 grams of gold, 6,815 grams of silver, 350 grams of ivory and 3,500 grams of teak.
Besides Pakistan, four other teams have dominated the history of the hockey World Cup winning it a number of times. Both the Netherlands (1973, 1990, 1998) and Australia (1986, 2010, 2014) have lifted the trophy on three occasions each while Germany has won the cup twice (2002, 2006). India won the trophy only once in 1975.
Spain had entered the final of the World Cup final on two occasions, 1971 and 1998, but had to be satisfied with the Runner Up trophy. England also featured in the final in 1986 but lost to Australia in the title clash. The Barcelona World Cup featured only ten countries, the smallest tournament till date, while the 1978 championship had 14 nations in the fray. The 2002 World Cup had 16 nations vying for the honours, the highest number of participants till date. Otherwise, most World Cups featured 12 teams. This time in Bhubaneswar, 16 teams will be playing in the tournament divided into four preliminary groups. There is a possibility that FIH may increase the number of participating teams to 24 in 2022.
After the successful staging of the first World Cup in Barcelona, the second was organized in Amstelveen (The Netherlands) in 1973. The subsequent editions of the championship were held in Kuala Lumpur in 1975, Buenos Aires in 1978, Mumbai, then Bombay, in 1982, London in 1986, Lahore in 1990, Sydney in 1994, Utrecht (The Netherlands) in 1998, Kuala Lumpur in 2002, Monchengladbach (Germany) in 2006, New Delhi in 2010 and The Hague (The Netherlands) in 2014.
India’s campaign in the first three World Cups was good with the national side finishing third in Barcelona, second in Amstelveen and was crowned champions at Kuala Lumpur defeating traditional rivals Pakistan 2-1 in the final. India’s performance in the subsequent tournaments has been pathetic with the team failing to reach the semifinals even once since 1975. The team finished fifth in 1982 and 1994. Otherwise, it suffered the ignominy of being placed last in 1986 and generally finished between the eighth and twelfth positions.
All followers of hockey must be hoping for a much brighter performance in Bhubaneswar this time.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in Bhubaneswar)