Poor show may have cost India 2010 World Cup bid

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Monchengladbach, Sep 14 (UNI) India may just have lost the bid to host the 2010 edition of the showpiece event to Rotterdam, Holland, thanks to their nightmarish show in the ongoing World Cup.

According to FIH insiders, India started as one of the front-runners, along with Holland, for the 2010 Cup but the series of lacklustre shows by Dilip Tirkey's men, so far winless, in the World Cup has forced a second thought.

''Even finishing among the top six here could have helped India's cause. But now they are playing for 9-12th position which is surely not a good avertisement for the standard of Indian hockey,'' they said.

India's cause was not either helped by the facts that there won't be any Champions Challenger Trophy next year and India is not a certainty for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The team will have to win the Gold in the Doha Asian Games later this year to book their Beijing berth, failing which, they would have to go through three qualifying tournaments next year to make it to the Olympics. And going by the current form, India's hopes for of a Gold in Doha sounds daydreaming.

Rotterdam, meanwhile, emerged as a strong contender for hosting the 2010 World Cup for some other reasons as well, said FIH sources.

According to them, sponsors would have a major say in finalising things and there is no death of Dutch sopnsors, Rabo Bank being the foremost of them.

Holland also enjoys a strong clout in the international hockey federation (FIH) and the President Els van Breda Viersen herself if a Dutch.

UNI HSB AY SB DS1520

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