India to face Bangladesh in Asiad Men's hockey opener

New Delhi, Oct 3 (UNI) Two time champions India will start their men's hockey campaign at the 15th Asian Games at Doha against Bangladesh on December 4.

India, runners up at the last edition at Busan four years ago, will next play China on December 5 followed by Oman on December 8.

India, who won both its Asiad titles at Bangkok in 1966 and 1998, are pitted against defending champions South Korea in their last Group B league encounter on December 10.

The five teams in Group A are seven-time winners Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong.

At Busan, Pakistan failed to make it to the podium for the first time since the inception of hockey at the Asian Games in 1958, when they were beaten to the Bronze medal by Malaysia.

According to the new International Hockey Federation (FIH) rules, the first two teams will be the automatic continental qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Earlier, only the gold medal winners got direct Olympic entry.

FIH has now ruled that there will be nine automatic berths for Beijing, three from Europe, two from Asia, besides the continental winner from Oceania, America and Africa, in addition to the hosts.

The final three places will be filled by the winners of three qualification tournaments of six teams each. Meanwhile, Pakistan have pulled out of the women's tournament at Doha, thus reducing the competition to seven teams.

The Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) will now possibly play a round robin league amongst South Korea, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.

Both the men's and women's matches will be played on the Poligras surface at the Al Rayyan Sports Complex at Doha. The women's competition begins December 2 while the men start two days later.

The final for women will be played on December 13 while the men's summit clash is scheduled for December 14.

Men's Schedule : Dec 4 : China v Oman, India v Bangladesh, Hong Kong v Chinese Taipei, Pakistan v Malaysia Dec 5 : South Korea v Bangladesh, India v China Dec 6 : Japan v Malaysia, Pakistan v Hong Kong China Dec 7 : China v Bangladesh, Oman v South Korea, Malaysia v Hong Kong Japan v Chinese Taipei Dec 8 : China v South Korea, India v Oman Dec 9 : Japan v Hong Kong, Pakistan v Chinese Taipei Dec 10: Bangladesh v Oman, India v South Korea, Malaysia v Chinese Taipei, Pakistan v Japan Dec 12: Classification Matches, Semi Finals Dec 14: Classification Matches: 7/8th, 5/6th, 3/4th places, Final.

UNI HSB PM KN1830