India to lock horns against Canada on the opening day of the Junior Hockey World Cup
Roelant Oltmans.
The 11th edition of the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup is all set to be staged in the city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh from the 8th of December until the 18th of the month. The 10-day event will feature the colts of the world’s top 16 teams square off against each other at the Major Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium.
All the competing nations have been divided into 4 groups of 4 teams each. For the first four days, from 8-12 December, the pool or the group stage of the tournament will take place. After a rest day on December 13, the top 2 teams from each group will clash against each other in the quarter-finals on December 14.
Subsequently, the semi-finals of the Junior Hockey World Cup will take place on the 16th of December and the all-important final encounter will be played on Sunday, 18th of December at 7 PM IST. Prior to that, the bronze medal match will take place at 4.45 PM IST.
In the opening fixture on the inaugural day, New Zealand will take the battle to Japan, then defending champions Germany will lock horns against European compatriots Spain while hosts India will feature in the last encounter of the day against Canada. The hosts will later face England on December 10th and play South Africa on December 12th as part of their Pool D league matches.
Also read: Sticking to plans will be key for India at 2016 Junior Hockey World Cup, says Roelant Oltmans
The Malaysian team made the cut for the World Cup on account of the fact that the Pakistani team failed to confirm its visas before a stipulated deadline. Playing on their home ground, India, who won the trophy back in 2001, and 6-time winners Germany are being tipped as favourites to clinch the trophy.
But unlike the new format of action-packed four quarters, the viewers will have to adjust themselves to watch the matches in the slower and older format of two halves in the Junior Hockey World Cup. The tournament will be played in the sports’ traditional format, with two sessions of 35 minutes each instead of the current international format of four quarters of 15 minutes each.
POOLS
Pool A: Australia, South Korea, Argentina, Austria
Pool B: Netherlands, Malaysia, Belgium, Egypt
Pool C: New Zealand, Germany, Spain, Japan
Pool D: England, Canada, South Africa, India
INDIAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Vikas Dahiya, Krishan B Pathak
Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Vikramjit Singh, Gurinder Singh.
Midfielders: Harjeet Singh, Santa Singh, Nilakanta Sharma Manpreet, Sumit
Forwards: Parvinder Singh, Gurjant Singh, Armaan Qureshi, Mandeep Singh, Ajit Kumar Pandey, Simranjeet Singh.
FULL SCHEDULE
Date | Pool | Time | Teams |
December 8, 2016 | Pool C | 11:30 AM (IST) | New Zealand vs Japan |
Pool C | 13:30 AM (IST) | Germany vs Spain | |
Pool D | 03:30 PM (IST) | England vs South Africa | |
Pool D | 07:00 PM (IST) | India vs Canada | |
December 9, 2016 | Pool A | 10: 00 AM (IST) | Australia vs Korea |
Pool A | 12: 00 PM (IST) | Argentina vs Austria | |
Pool B | 02: 00 PM (IST) | Belgium vs Egypt | |
Pool C | 04: 00 PM (IST) | Spain vs Japan | |
Pool C | 06: 00 PM (IST) | New Zealand vs Germany | |
Pool B | 08: 00 PM (IST) | Netherlands vs Malaysia | |
December 10, 2016 | Pool A | 01: 00 PM (IST) | Korea vs Austria |
Pool D | 03: 00 PM (IST) | South Africa vs Canada | |
Pool A | 05: 00 PM (IST) | Argentina – Australia | |
Pool D | 07: 00 PM (IST) | India – England | |
December 11, 2016 | Pool C | 01: 00 PM (IST) | Germany vs Japan |
Pool B | 03: 00 PM (IST) | Belgium vs Netherlands | |
Pool C | 05: 00 PM (IST) | Malaysia vs Egypt | |
Pool B | 07: 00 PM (IST) | Spain vs New Zealand | |
December 12, 2016 | Pool D | 10: 00 AM (IST) | England vs Canada |
Pool A | 12: 00 PM (IST) | Australia vs Austria | |
Pool A | 02: 00 PM (IST) | Korea vs Argentina | |
Pool B | 04: 00 PM (IST) | Netherlands vs Egypt | |
Pool B | 06: 00 PM (IST) | Malaysia vs Belgium | |
Pool D | 08: 00 PM (IST) | South Africa vs India | |
December 14, 2016 | Qtr Final | 12: 15 PM (IST) | TBD |
Qtr Final | 02: 30 PM (IST) | TBD | |
Qtr Final | 04:45 PM (IST) | TBD | |
Qtr Final | 07: 00 PM (IST) | TBD | |
December 15, 2016 | 13 / 16 Place | 12: 15 PM (IST) | TBD |
13 / 16 Place | 02: 30 PM (IST) | TBD | |
9 / 12 Place | 04:45 PM (IST) | TBD | |
9 / 12 Place | 07: 00 PM (IST) | TBD | |
December 16, 2016 | 5 / 8 Place | 12: 15 PM (IST) | TBD |
5 / 8 Place | 02: 30 PM (IST) | TBD | |
Semi Final | 04:45 PM (IST) | TBD | |
Semi Final | 07: 00 PM (IST) | TBD | |
December 17, 2016 | 15th/16th Place | 12: 15 PM (IST) | TBD |
13th/14th Place | 02: 30 PM (IST) | TBD | |
11th/12th Place | 04:45 PM (IST) | TBD | |
9th/10th Place | 07: 00 PM (IST) | TBD | |
December 18, 2016 | 7th/8th Place | 12: 15 PM (IST) | TBD |
5th/6th Place | 02: 30 PM (IST) | TBD | |
3rd/4th Place | 04:45 PM (IST) | TBD | |
Final | 07: 00 PM (IST) | TBD |
BROADCAST AND LIVE STREAMING
The matches will be telecast live on Star Sports 4 and Star Sports 4 HD. The live stream will be available on Hotstar.