India, Pak fail to get hockey for 2001 Games

Kathmandu, Oct 2: Hockey, the national game of both India and Pakistan, is getting the cold shoulder. It was bad enough that hockey was not on the programme here in Kathmandu, but the sport does not find a place even in the next edition of the Games to be held in Peshawar in 2001. At least for Kathmandu the reasoning was Nepal does not play much of hockey and there is little interest, but even Peshawar in Pakistan could not get the sport back on the programme. Yet, two other disciplines _ badminton and squash _ have been added. Peshwar is the home of the great Khans, Jehangir and Jansher.

For any discipline to get the nod from the South Asia Sports Federation (SASF) executive committee a minimum of four votes are needed, and hockey managed only three _ India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Hockey did not evince much interest from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives and clearly the Big Two of the SAF fold have not been able to find many takers for their sport, despite it being an Asian and Olympic Gamesdiscipline played by more than 110 countries.

The Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi however, seemed more interested in promoting kabaddi this time around. He is lobbying to get kabaddi included in the coming Asian Games. As for hockey he aid: "We tried hard but it did not work out," he said. "We’ll try to get it back in the SAF Games in future."