Lausanne, (Samajweekly) The Indian men’s hockey team are placed at the fourth spot in the latest FIH team rankings while the women’s team are placed at the ninth position.
Belgium men and the Netherlands women will finish the year at the top of the rankings, confirmed the International Hockey Federation on Monday.
In the men’s rankings, reigning world and European champions Belgium (2496.88 points) sit at the summit in front of Australia (2nd place – 2385.70), Netherlands (3rd place – 2257.96) and India (4th place – 2063.78).
Olympic champions Argentina (1967.39) are in fifth, followed by Germany (6th place – 1944.34), England/Great Britain (7th place – 1743.77), New Zealand (8th place – 1575.00), Spain (9th place – 1559.32) and Canada (10th place – 1417.37).
In women’s rankings, The Netherlands (2631.99 points) are 457 ranking points ahead second placed Argentina (2174.61), with Germany (2054.28) occupying third position, climbing one place following their Pro League results against Belgium in September.
Australia (2012.89) finish the year in fourth place, with England/Great Britain (1952.74) and New Zealand (1818.98) fifth and sixth respectively. Spain (7th place – 1802.13), Ireland (8th place – 1583.09), India (9th place – 1543.00) and China (10th place – 1521.00) complete the top ten.
In January, FIH had introduced its new match-based model for the calculation of the world rankings, with the Pro League matches that were played in early part of the year seeing regular fluctuations in the standings before the Covid-19 global health pandemic brought the competition – and all international hockey – to a standstill in March.
The brief return of the competition between September and November saw further exchanges of points between the men’s and women’s national teams of Belgium, Germany, Netherlands and Great Britain.
The Indian men’s hockey team’s campaign in the ongoing Pro League is scheduled to restart on April 10 and 11, 2021 with a tie against Argentina away from home. They will then play Great Britain away from home on May 8 and 9 before travelling to Spain where they play on May 12 and 13. They then face Germany away on May 18 and 19 and will finally play a home tie on May 29 and 30 against New Zealand.
The Indian women’s team is not part of the Pro League tournament.
