Bhubaneswar: The Pro League double-header between the Indian men’s hockey team and Germany later this week has been postponed. This is due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the visitors’ camp, the sport’s governing body FIH said Tuesday. The matches were scheduled for March 12 and 13 at the Kalinga stadium here. However, now the matches will be played at a later date, FIH said.
“FIH, Hockey India and Hockey Germany are already working together to find alternative dates,” FIH said in a statement.
The Indian men’s team have had a topsy-turvy campaign so far in the FIH Pro League. They defeated South Africa in both the matches, but had a win and a loss in the ties against France and Spain.
While the men’s matches were deferred, the women’s matches between India and Germany will go on as planned this weekend at the Kalinga Stadium. The Germany women’s team arrived here Tuesday. Skipper Lisa Nolte expressed delight at the prospect of playing India at the Kalinga Stadium.
“We have never played at the Kalinga Stadium before, so we are very excited about it. It will be amazing to play at such a big stadium, and we are looking forward to it,” Lisa said on arrival.
“We definitely see India as a strong team, especially they performed so well at the Tokyo Olympics. Playing at the home ground is always an advantage. However, we don’t want to be unsettled by this and we will go into the game confident of success,” Lisa added.
World No. 5 German will play their first FIH Pro League game since October last year.
Germany women’s head coach Akim Bouchouchi said, “After the last Pro League games in October, girls had a break. Then they played the indoor season with the clubs. It’s a big event in Germany. We had only one preparatory camp prior to the two games against India.”
Bouchouchi added, “But at this moment, we needed big motivation to start the New Year with exciting events like Germany coming to India for Pro League games. It’s the first time Germany women’s team will play games in India in couple of years. We are very curious about the atmosphere in the stadium, and the games against the Indian women’s team.”