KARACHI: Three-time former Olympic champions Pakistan faces a Herculean task to earn a ticket for the next year’s men’s hockey World Cup by finishing among top five teams in the World Cup qualifiers semi-finals being held at London from June 15- 25.

A similar 10-team qualifier takes place at Johannesburg from July 9 to 24.

India will play host to the World Cup at Bhubaneswar from Nov 24 to Dec 16 next year and the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has decided to extend the number of competing teams to 16 from that competition onward.

Unfortunately, Pakistan, whose international ranking has slipped to unbelievable 13, had missed the last two big events – the 2014 World Cup at The Hague and the 2016 Rio Olympics after failing to qualify for them.

The continental champions and the host India have earned a direct passage for the next year’s World Cup.

There’s a possibility that the continental champions may end up among top fray in the qualifiers at London and Johannesburg and pave the way for some lower-ranked teams to qualify for World Cup.

Meanwhile, Pakistan hockey team has reached London from Ireland after playing a three-Test series.

The 10 teams that will compete in London have been drawn into two groups which are as follows.

A: South Korea, Argentina, England, China and Malaysia.

B: India, Scotland, Netherlands, Pakistan and Canada.

According to draws, Pakistan takes on Netherlands in their group opening match on June 15. The greenshirts takes on Canada the following day.

Pakistan-India clash is on card for June 18 while Pakistan faces Scotland on June 19.

The group matches will be followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, final and the classification matches.

Schedule:

June 15: South Korea v Argentina, India v Scotland, Netherlands v Pakistan, England v China.

June 16: Pakistan v Canada, Argentina v Malaysia.

June 17: China v South Korea, Canada, India, England v Malaysia, Scotland v Netherlands.

June 18: Pakistan v India, England v Argentina.

June 19: Scotland v Pakistan, Netherlands v Canada, South Korea v Malaysia, Argentina v China.

June 20: Scotland v Canada, India v Netherlands, China v Malaysia, England v South Korea.

June 22: 9th- 10th position match, quarter-finals.

June 24: 5th to 8th position matches, semi-finals.

June 25: Classification matches 7th-8th, 5th- 6th, 3rd-4th, final.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2017