Karachi, Sept 13: Indian hockey legend Dhanraj Pillay has urged Indian and Pakistani officials to step up efforts to revive a bilateral series between both nations, if they want to regain their lost status in the sport.

India and Pakistan were dominant forces until the last decade, but are currently struggling against the European sides that lead the world rankings now.

The legendary Indian striker believes that the suspension of bilateral series is largely responsible for the downfall of both countries in this sport.

After successfully hosting the Hero Honda FIH World Cup Hockey at the beginning of 2010, India is ready to host the FIH Champions Trophy (Men) by the coming year (2011).

The Executive Board of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has chosen India to be the location for hosting the trophy in 2011.

The FIH Champions Trophy is planned to be hosted in India in December next year.

During the same year, Olympic and World Champion Netherlands will host the Women's FIH Champions Trophy.

FIH will announce the dates for both the events later.

India has to share its Sultan Azlan Shah trophy with Korea. India and Korea were declared joint champions of the prestigious Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament. India was the defending champions of the event. The title was shared as the final match was abandoned after six minutes of play due to heavy rain. This is the first time ever in the history of the event that two teams were declared as joint winners. However, India had a very good tournament this year. It has leaded the pool with a tally of 13 points.

Sultan Azlan Shah International Tournament is all set to unfold from today. Total seven countries will take part in this prestigious tournament. There will five countries from Asia only. India, Korea, Pakistan, China and Malaysia constitute the Asian challenge in the competition. Australia and Egypt are the two other teams. This tournament is going to be a testing ground for the seven participating teams.

With the retirement of Dilip Tirkey, an era has come to an end. Competitive hockey can never forget the charisma and competence of the most dependable Dilip Tirkey. Tirkey has signed off from international hokey on Sunday. But he is a true ambassador of the game. He is a true gentleman.

He has started his hokey from the pastoral ambience of the remote villages in the Sundargarh districts of Orissa. His journey from Sundargarh to the Olympics is no less than a fairy tale. He has made it possible by his strong determination and dedication. He has played three Olympics in a row from 1996 to 2004.

Indian women hockey team has held Japan to 2-2 draw in the fourth and last match of the tour at the Gifu Green Stadium in Kakamigahara, Japan on Wednesday.

Saundarya Yendala scored first goal for India in the seventh minute but Rika Komazawa leveled the score by smashing ball into the nets in the 9th minute of the match. The score was at one goal each in the half time.

Saundarya gave India once again lead by converting a penalty corner into goal in the 39th minute of the match. Mie Nakashima scored the equalizer for the Japan in the 62nd minute as match ended with 2-2 goals.

India has finished at the eighth position in the Hockey World Cup (HWC) as the team went down to Argentina 2-4 in the seventh position play off tie at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Friday.

India was trailing by one goal at the half time but after that Argentina smashed three goals in the second half. India managed to score only two goals in the second half and ended their campaign at the eighth place in the 12-nation tournament.

After the unfortunate incident of the referral system that left many Indian hockey fans in dismay against a match against South Africa, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) may review the controversial referral system.

In the 45th minute when India hit a goal to take the lead and the fans were about to dance in joy, the appeal by the South Africans about foul that occurred in the Indian circle a minute or two before. The FIH has itself agreed on the fact that the referral system as used wasn't an ideal situation.

The defending champions Germany has clearly shown better peformance in hockey, as the team crushed the New Zealand team to enter the Semi-Finals of the much-hyped FIH World Cup.

After suffering from a draw against Holland, German team's aggressive stature clearly displayed the belief of a win to seal a position in the top four in the tournament. A goal by Cristoph Menke opened the flood doors for the kiwis and the team lost to the Germans by 5-2 in a crucial encounter.

Netherlands have reached into the semifinal of the Hockey World Cup even after losing their last league match 1-2 against the South Korean at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Ronald Brouwer smashed first goal of the match for Netherlands in just 22 seconds of the start of the play. Nam Hyun-Woon scored the equalizer for Korea in the 31st minute while Seo Jung-Ho scored the second goal in the 45th minute.

Argentina will face India for the seventh position playoff tie as Argentina has defeated Canada by 4-2 in the last match of the Pool A in the Hockey World Cup in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Lucas Martin Villa, Matias Enrique Paredes, Mario Nicolas Almada and Tomas Innocente Argento scored one goal each for Argentina in the 29th , 43rd , 56th and 70th minutes respectively. Scott Tuper (60th) and David Jameson (65th) scored one goal each for Canada.

Already on a roll, the Spanish team has settled its old score with England as the Spanish beat England by 2-0 in an interesting encounter. Although, the British have already secured a place for themselves in the Semi-final but the fact that the England team was beaten 4-2 in January by Spain and they haven't been able to file a victory against them in the past 35 years remains intact.

Pau Quemada converted a penalty corner into a goal in the first half for Spain while Eduard Tubau added on to the leading the second half for Olympics silver medallist Spain's third victory in the tournament.

The Hero Honda Hockey World Cup on Saturday saw Indian players making every effort to improve their ranking and find place in the semi-final.

The day, however, remained in the favor of England players as they marked their victory in the Pool B through a commanding tally of 12 points.

The fourth successive win by England can prove dearly to India as the country is nearly unlikely to find third place in the Pool B. I

ndia has also a tough time ahead as Indian team would take on South Africa on Monday on its home turf.

The Netherlands have continued their dominance in the Hockey World Cup (HWC) as the Dutch team has thrashed Canada by 6-0 in the Pool A match at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium on Friday.

Both teams failed to open their accounts in the first half but Dutch smashed six goals in the second half to outplay their opponents. Drag-flick specialist Taeke Taekma and Rogier Hofman smashed two goals each for Netherlands.

Taeke has now become the leading goal scorer in the World Cup with six goals. Roland Brouwer and Rob Reckers scored one goal each.

Indian Hockey team has entered the FIH World Cup by crushing the arch-rival Pakistan by 4-1 but after the setback given by Australia, the Indian team will get on the ground against Spain in a must-win situation on Thursday night.

Even though, both the teams have lost one match each but it is all the more imperative for India to file a win against Spain. The world #3 may have been missing two of the biggest names in their line-up i. e. Santi Freixa and Eduardo Tubaubut, this Olympic-silver medallist team will not be in any mood to take it on their face.

In spite of 6-0 win over Canada, German coach Markus Weise is not happy with the artificial turf laid at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium due to unevenness in the bounce.

German coach said that their performance in the match was very good but he is not satisfied with the behavior of the field during the match.

He added that these new turfs have created problems for players all across the world due to uneven bounce and it is very difficult for our players to play on this kind of track.

The defending champion Germany has defeated Canada by 6-0 in the second match of the Pool A to register their first win in the Hockey World Cup (HWC) at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The man of the match Benjamin Wess slammed three goals for Germany while Jan-Marco Montag, Max Muller and Martin Haner scored one goal each. Germany took 4-0 lead in the first half and continued their dominance in the second half to seal the match by 6-0.

Netherlands has defeated New Zealand by 3-1 in the second match of the Pool A on the fourth day of the Hockey World Cup (HWC) at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

New Zealand’s Phillip Burrows scored the first goal of the match in the first minute but Ronald Brouwer of Netherlands smashed ball into the nets in the second minute of the match to level the score.

Australia won against the hosts, India in their second match in the ongoing Hero Honda Hockey World Cup in Delhi. The match ended with the score 5-2 in favor of Australia.

The Indian team even though lost the match, showed a good fighting spirit against the tough Australian side. The support for the team remained even after it lost the game. The team ranked No. 12 in world showed a fight back after the game was 3-0 in favor of the team ranked No. 2.

After Shivendra Singh got a ban for the alleged level 2 offence, the Indian hockey team management has officially filed an appeal to overturn the ban against him.

In a match where the local team registered a mind-boggling 4-1 win in the inaugural match of the FIH world cup against the arch-rival Pakistan, Shivendra Singh got a ban from The International Hockey Federation.