KARACHI, March 11 The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has published some new rules of hockey which will come into effect from May 1.

An FIH media release said on Wednesday that the new rules will be applied to all matches at the international level.

One of the objectives of the FIH and Hockey Rules Board (HRB) is to decrease the number and duration of interruptions during the game.

With this in mind, the rule specifying how a free hit is taken has been reviewed.

The player taking the free hit may use a 'self-pass'. This enables the player taking the free hit to play the ball again after taking the free hit.

In addition, attacking free-hits taken inside the 23-metre area have been reviewed in general and in relation to the 'self-pass'.

The rules specify that these free hits must not be played directly into the circle as they are dangerous.

These revised rules are referred to as mandatory experimental rules.—PPI