Asian Champions Trophy needs a revamp

Halfway through the men’s Asian Champions Trophy and the difference between India and the rest of the participating teams has been more evident than ever.

While it was always expected that the host would dominate the proceedings, the huge gap on the turf merits question on the relevance of the competition, specially for India, and the way forward for both the ACT and Asian hockey.

When the event was conceptualised and inaugurated way back in 2011, it was meant to be an avenue for Asian teams to compete against and grow with each other. Since then, however, continental hockey has only slipped further on the world stage, reflected in the world rankings.

Consider this: At the end of 2011, when the ACT was first played, there were three Asian teams in the top-10 — Korea (6), Pakistan (8) and India (10). Malaysia (13), Japan (15) and China (17) weren’t too far behind. A year later, Pakistan broke into the top-five followed by Korea and India as the highest-ranked Asian sides.

In contrast, the latest rankings (as of Saturday) have India (8) as the lone Asian team in the top 10 — as has been the case for the last few years — with Pakistan (12), Malaysia (13) and Japan (16) following. Korea is languishing at 20.

India has been the only Asian team to qualify for all the four Olympics since then. Pakistan played the 2012 edition by virtue of winning the 2010 Asian Games and Japan was at the 2020 edition as host. Korea’s last appearance at the quadrennial showpiece was in 2012.

“Well, I see this tournament as possibly a building phase for certain teams. It’s really difficult to place it somewhere where it has meaning when you’ve just played Asian Games against the same people, so it is difficult,” coach Craig Fulton admitted.

One way of raising the tournament’s profile and make it more competitive could be expanding it beyond Asia. Making it an Afro-Asian or Asia-Oceania competition with eight to 10 teams instead of the present six would not only bring in better teams but also provide much needed impetus to Hockey India’s plans of diversifying the hosting of international hockey across the country.

There is no denying, however, that the tournament in its entirety, its place in the calendar and Asian hockey as a whole needs a revamp. Hockey India secretary general Bholanath Singh, also the AHF vice-president, did not respond to queries despite repeated attempts.