1india clubbed with pakistan5 Dec, 2009 New Delhi, India

The Arch-rivals India and Pakistan shall face-off in preliminary league of field hockey’s World Cup in the next year; the International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced this on Tuesday. India is the Eight-time Olympic champion that is now clubbed with the four-time winners and arch-rivals Pakistan in the Hockey World Cup. India will be hosting this tournament for the very first time since the 1978 World Cup that was held in Bombay.

India and Pakistan both have been drawn together in the pool B along with Australia, England, Spain and South Africa in the 12-nation tournament that is to be played in New Delhi from February 28 to March 13 at the National Stadium.

These teams will be defending the champions Germany head pool A that includes the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada and Argentina. The Two teams from each of the pools will advance to the semi-finals. The FIH said that the match schedule will be released before December 31.

Pool A: Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina.
Pool B: Australia, Spain, England, Pakistan, India, South Africa.