Manchester stars miss out on hockey ticket to Athens

India’s women hockey players, who memorably won the Commonwealth gold last year, are unlikely to play at next year’s Olympic Games in Athens. The qualification rules announced by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) last week spells out clearly that India cannot make it to Athens, unless an appeal to be filed by the Indian federation (IWHF) does the trick.

Who’s in, who’s out

Continental winners: China, Australia, Argentina, Netherlands To be decided: African winner Teams in qualifiers: Great Britain, South Korea, Germany, Spain, US, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Ukraine, Ireland. (Reserves: Russia, France, Canada)

Ten teams will contest the Olympic title: the five continental champions and five qualifiers from the tournament to be held in Manukau (New Zealand) next March. And the criteria for playing the qualifier tournament: the top 10 teams (except those who’ve already qualified) at the World Cup held at Perth in December, 2002.

‘‘The rules are clear’’, said FIH Event Manager Dennis Meredith. ‘‘Teams are selected on the basis of the rankings of the previous World Cup and India don’t figure there.’’

With four continental champions — Argentina, Australia, Netherlands and China — already through, and South Africa likely to win the African tournament next month, that means teams ranked 5-15 play the qualifiers. On standby are Russia, France and Canada; India, which didn’t qualify for the World Cup, aren’t on the list.

The development seems to have taken the IWHF by surprise. Its president Vidya Stokes told this paper, ‘‘We don’t know the rules under which the FIH has not included India.’’ And just last month, when M K Kaushik took over as the team coach, he said ‘‘qualifying for Athens was the main target’’.

However, the federation is determined to appeal. ‘‘We are sending a letter to the FIH tomorrow’’, Stokes said on Tuesday. ‘‘We won the Commonwealth Games title and our team is better than some of the teams which will be playing the qualifying tournament.’’

Meredith, when informed of this, said: ‘‘I can’t make any comment on India’s chances if they are making an appeal. But the rules are clear — the qualification process has been approved by the IOC (International Olympic Committee).’’