Star Sports to provide live telecast of 9th men's Asia Cup hockey tourney

There is some good news for hockey lovers. Star Sports has come forward to provide live telecast of the upcoming 9th men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament to be played at Ipoh, Malaysia from August 24 to September 1.

The move of Star Sports to offer live telecast of the major continental event, which is India’s last opportunity to qualify for the 2014 World Cup slated to be held in The Hague, Netherlands next June, thus ends the uncertainty over whether billion hockey lovers would be able to see their boys in action.

The 9th Asia Cup is of crucial interest not just for India but also for three other hockey powers from the region – Pakistan, Korea and Malaysia. It may be worth recalling that no Asian nation has managed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup from the two Hockey World League Round 3 events held in Rotterdam and Johor Bahru.

The saddest part of the 2014 World Cup is that either India or Pakistan will not be part of the marquee event as only the Asia Cup winner earns a berth.

A look at the Indian team’s 2012 international assignments indicates that barring the 2012 Olympic qualifiers and the 34th Champions Trophy (Ten Sports has exclusive rights for live telecast of FIH-run tournaments), and London Olympics (for which ESPN-Star Sports have bought exclusive rights), none of the other international tournaments featuring the Indian men’s and women’s teams were shown live on any of the sports channels; worse, not even a highlights package of these events was shown.

More prominently, the 2nd Asian Champions Trophy held in Doha was not shown live for the second time (like the inaugural edition last year).

The 2012 Sultan Azlan Shah held in Malaysia almost suffered the same fate before Neo Sports stepped in at the last minute and provided live telecast of the tournament.

In 2013, the Hockey World League Round 2 and 3 events were shown live on Ten Sports as part of its deal with FIH, but the 7th Junior Women’s World Cup hockey tournament was not shown on the same channel despite its deal with FIH for reasons best known to them.