BHUBANESWAR:
International Hockey Federation
CEO
Jason McCracken
says the door is still open for India's participation in its ambitious Hockey Pro League.
Hockey India
(HI) withdrew from the league in July this year saying the tournament doesn't offer a direct qualification for the Olympics and it would have been next to impossible for its women team to make the cut for Tokyo 2020 through this event.
"
FIH
would be absolutely delighted if Hockey India is a part of that and I think in the future when the time is right, I hope they will join us," McCraken said while addressing the media here on the sidelines of the Hockey World League Final on Saturday evening. "Because hockey is strong when India is there and we are seeing that here, the door is open. There is a process by which countries can join the Pro League. When the time is right, we will welcome Hockey India in the Pro League. There are some challenges of course. We are working on the schedule. You could imagine it - 144 games all over the world. We have to adjust it."
McCraken also revealed that the world hockey body has sent Pakistan the invitation for participating at the men's hockey World Cup next year which is also slated to be held in Odisha despite the current state of diplomatic relations between the countries. "We are super delighted for Pakistan to be here. We have to ensure that Pakistan players get visa in time and they do all the correct things - by their government and Indian. Pakistan has been invited and we look forward to seeing Pakistan next year in Bhubaneswar," he said.
Odisha is hosting the last edition of HWL Final which began on Friday and McCracken called the opening ceremony the best he has ever seen for an international hockey event. "The opening ceremony was the best opening ceremony I've ever seen and I have been involved in four Olympic events and different hockey events all over the world. Odisha has set the standard for that we want hockey to be like. We want it to be a superstar event and if this is the standard for Hockey World League Final, I can't wait for the Odisha World Cup," he said.
The HWL will be replaced by Pro League in 2019 and McCracken who is a former Olympic and World Cup umpire from New Zealand, says the reason behind is that apart from India, the event failed to draw enough support.
"I think these Finals (in India) have been very successful. And a few years ago, I was the tournament director for this event in Delhi and we didn't have such strong support and crowd. It has been growing but unfortunately we still see some earlier rounds where we didn't have such strong support from TV, media athletes and also fans coming to the game. So we have simplified it and ensured it links up to the Olympic programme as well," he said.
On why FIH believes its latest experiment to popularise the game will be a success, McCracken said, "We think Pro League is going to be a success. Everyone one of those games is a home match and we have seen good crowd for that. But when we see India playing, there's a packed crowd. We want that all over the world."