Pakistan wants ACT hockey matches to be shifted from India to a neutral venue

India and Pakistan are scheduled to face each other in Jalandhar on November 1.

The development comes after Pakistan pulled out of the FIH Junior World Cup in Tamil Nadu and the Asia Cup in Rajgir, Bihar, last year.

Hockey India secretary general Bhola Nath Singh, who is also a vice-president of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), however, ruled out any change in venue.

“No such request would be entertained. There will be no change in venue. If they (Pakistan) want to play in the Asian Champions Trophy, they will have to come to India,” Bhola Nath was quoted as saying by PTI.

He added that if Pakistan do not turn up, the organisers have the option of replacing them with either Bangladesh or Oman. Apart from India and Pakistan, Malaysia, China, Korea and Japan are slated to participate.

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Similar issues have regularly arisen in cricket, with the two national boards unwilling to send their teams across the border for multilateral tournaments. Bilateral cricket between India and Pakistan has also remained suspended for years.

An arrangement has now been reached under which, whenever either India or Pakistan hosts an ICC event over the next few years, matches involving the other side will be played at a neutral venue.

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann had earlier said that Pakistan would travel to the state for the Asian Champions Trophy as India’s sports policy did not object to athletes from the neighbouring country coming over for multilateral events. The PHF subsequently said that Pakistan’s trip across the border to play in the tournament was subject to its government’s clearance.

The issue has surfaced just days after the Indian women’s cricket team refused to take the trophy from Asian Cricket Council chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and his country’s interior minister, after winning the Asia Cup.

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India’s men’s team had done likewise after clinching the corresponding tournament last year.

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