The Indian men’s hockey team’s competitive international assignments ahead of the Tokyo Olympics are effectively over.
The team’s upcoming FIH Hockey Pro League away matches against Spain and Germany, scheduled on May 15-16 and May 22-23 respectively, have been officially postponed due to the COVID-induced travel restrictions.
“The FIH, Hockey India as well as the National Associations of Germany, Spain and Great Britain are currently looking at all potential options to rearrange these matches at a later date,” the International Hockey Federation said in a statement.
With matches against Great Britain, initially scheduled in London on May 8-9 also postponed, India’s only remaining international assignment before the Tokyo Olympics was expected to be home Pro League matches against New Zealand on May 29-30. But while the FIH hasn’t officially called them off, the games have already been marked as postponed on its website.
Many countries have paused flights from India as a consequence of the second wave of the pandemic, Germany being one of them.
If these ties are not rescheduled before Tokyo, which looks highly unlikely at the moment given the massive surge in COVID cases in the country, the men are likely to be training at home till their departure for the Games.