Indian Hockey Withdraw From 2022 Commonwealth Games – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• The dispute between Indian and British governments over vaccination certificates and quarantine regulations has spilled over to the hockey turf.
• A day after England pulled out of the Junior World Cup, to be held in Bhubaneswar in November,
• India confirmed the withdrawal of its men’s and women’s teams from next year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

• Both have cited the mandatory 10-day quarantine imposed on travellers from the other country by their governments as one of the key reasons for the decision.

UK’s withdrawal from Jr. world cup

• On Monday, Hockey England had announced their withdrawal from the Junior World Cup, which will be held from November 24 to December 5. “…with a number of COVID-related concerns in place, and with player and staff wellbeing in mind, it has become untenable for our team to participate.
• We note that on Friday the Indian government announced a mandatory ten-day quarantine for all UK nationals,” Hockey England said in a statement.

Biased against India

• Last month, Hockey India had said the participation of its teams in the CWG was ‘doubtful’ because of the competition’s proximity to the Asian Games, where an Olympic berth is at stake.
• But in a letter to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra on Tuesday, Hockey India chief Gyanendro Ningombam cited the ‘discriminatory restrictions’ that are ‘biased against India’ as an additional reason to pull out of the CWG.
• Curiously, the announcement came barely a couple of hours after the government said in a media release that the men’s team was ‘likely to participate’ in the tournament.
• Hockey India also said they did not want to ‘risk’ the health of the players by claiming that ‘over the last 18 months,
• England has been the worst affected country in Europe’ with regards to the pandemic.
• Ningombam wrote in his letter to Batra: “It is pertinent to mention that due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, England have issued guidelines that 10 days quarantine is required (for) Indian arrivals in England even for those who are fully vaccinated, since Indian vaccinations are not yet recognised by the English government.”
• He added: “Such discriminatory restrictions were not imposed on Indian athletes and officials during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games and this 10 days quarantine requirement for vaccinated sportspersons will affect their performances.
• We feel these restrictions are biased against India and term it as very unfortunate.”

Olympic berth at stake

• Batra said the decision not to compete in the CWG is final even though it is still nine months away.
• “Asian Games are important for us and will take place immediately after the CWG. We do not know what kind of conditions will be put on us at that stage so we don’t want our players to be under any kind of stress before the Asian Games,” Batra said.
• In hockey, the Asian Games gold medallists are confirmed of an Olympic berth, thus saving the team from a tricky qualifying process.

Close dates

• The Asian Games are scheduled to take place 35 days after the Commonwealth games end.
• Birmingham 2020 is slated to take place from 28 July 2022, while the Asian Games is slated to take place from September 10, 2022.
• The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will see 4,500 athletes from 72 nations and territories compete across 11 spectacular days of sport.
• Birmingham 2022 will be the first major multi-sport event in history to award more medals to women than men.

About Commonwealth

• The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries.
• It is home to 2.5 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries.
• 32 of our members are small states, including many island nations.
• The Commonwealth’s roots go back to the British Empire. But today any country can join the modern Commonwealth. The last country to join the Commonwealth was Rwanda in 2009.

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