India will host the Hockey World Cup 2023, which begins on January 13. The nine-day matches will be played in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. There will be 16 teams at the Hockey World Cup 2023, but Pakistan will not be one. The World Cup will feature all Asian hockey-playing countries except Pakistan.
Due to their failure to finish among the top four in the May 2022 Asia Cup, Pakistan did not qualify for the FIH men’s world cup.
“It is really sad that Pakistan is not among the 16 teams competing in the World Cup. We couldn’t have asked for a better chance to qualify for the event. It was a piece of cake, yet we missed it. As a former world champion, I feel really sad and disappointed not to see Pakistan as one of the competing teams in India,” said Khawaja Junaid, a member of the World Cup-winning squad in 1994.
The FIH Men’s World Cup will be hosted twice by the same country for the first time. India also hosted the 2018 Hockey World Cup.