July 13, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 9, 1429

Hyderabad, July 12: India may bid for next year’s Asia Cup hockey tournament, but a final decision will be taken at ad-hoc committee meeting with hockey Olympians here Sunday to chart out roadmap for Indian hockey.

“We are meeting Olympians and will discuss with them action plan for Indian hockey. Asia Cup will also be discussed,” M Kalmadi said.

Asia Cup venue will be decided at executive council meeting of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHC) here on July 17. Others in race are Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates, AHF secretary general P. Alagendra said.

The tournament is also an Asian qualifying event for 2010 World Cup finals, which will also be held in India.

“We received all bid documents. AHF competitions committee made its recommendation to the council for a decision,” Alagendra said. It will also decide whether to increase number of teams for the tournament from eight to 10.

Currently, qualifiers are top six from previous tournament (India, Pakistan, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and China) and top two from AHF Cup (Bangladesh & Oman).—Agencies