The January 13-29 tournament will be co-hosted by two cities in the state of Odisha. Last year’s venue, the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, will be joined by Rourkela, where the matches will be held at the new, purpose-built Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium.
NUMBER OF MATCHES AND TEAMS
A total of 44 games will be played across the two venues, involving the world’s 16 top teams.
Hosts and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists India will be joined by title holders and reigning Olympic champions Belgium, world No. 1 Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Argentina, England, Spain, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, France, Japan, Chile and Wales.
The pool-stage matches will be divided between the two venues Rourkela and Bhubaneswar, followed by the crossover matches to be played at Bhubaneswar alone.
Matches to decide the 9th to 16th places will be held in Rourkela, while the quarterfinals, semifinals, bronze-medal match and the final will be hosted by Bhubaneswar.
THE FORMAT
The 16 teams have been divided into four pools.
Each team in its respective pool will play the other three teams once, and the pool-topper will progress to the quarterfinals. The teams ranked second and third in each pool will play the crossover matches that will decide the remaining four quarterfinalists.
THE POOLS
Pool A: Australia, South Africa, France, Argentina
Pool B: Belgium, Japan, Korea, Germany
Pool C: Netherlands, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand
Pool D: India, Wales, Spain, England
The two semifinals will be played on January 27 and the final on January 29.
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