BHUBANESWAR: The Hockey India League (HIL), the 2018 of which was scrapped, will return in 2019, according to Hockey India CEO Elena Norman.
The organisers had claimed that postponing the league had been necessitated to undertake a review of the last five seasons. The 2019 edition, the dates of which are yet to be finalised, will serve as the season- ending event to a busy international calendar, reports PTI.
The HI CEO said HIL will come back stronger in November-December 2019. “HIL will return at the end of 2019. It is on track. We are working with FIH for the window. We haven’t finalised the exact window yet,” Norman said on the sidelines of the ongoing Hockey World League (HWL) Final here.
“Everyone likes to make money. Everyone likes to make sure that you have the best possible scenario in place. We still have little bit of time to relook at everything. We have already confirmed to our broadcaster for 2019. We will need to reconfirm with FIH because they will also have a qualifying event leading upto 2020 Tokyo Olympics and that will happen before the HIL so that the players are free,” PTI quotes Norman as saying. Norman is also a member of the HIL Governing Committee.
The next men’s hockey World Cup is scheduled to be held at the Kalinga Stadium here from November 28 to December 16 next year and the HI CEO said they have got the necessary approvals for the conduct of the tournament. Bhubaneswar has been confirmed to host the event, and the HI CEO said the Kalinga Stadium will sport a completely new look for next year’s mega-event.
“This pitch is three years old and it will be changed for the World Cup. The practice pitches will be changed. Construction work will finish by the end of May. After that we will be laying the pitch and it will require two months for that. Before the monsoon everything will be complete,” Norman said.
