Rescheduled US Field Hockey Women, India Series Shifts to England
Colorado Springs, Colo. – The U.S. Field Hockey women’s
national team will once again attempt to play India in the rescheduled World Cup
qualifying series, June 22- 25 near Birmingham, England.
The series was moved to England by the International Hockey Federation (FIH)
after a U.S. State Department’s travel warning and subsequent departure of the U.S. team from India on May 25 canceled the previously scheduled
series, June 3-5 in New Delhi. The series will decide the final qualifying
berth to the 2002 World Cup, Nov. 25 - Dec. 8 in Perth, Australia.
The new schedule has the series starting on
Saturday, June 22 and continuing Sunday, June 23 with a third game, if necessary, on
Tuesday, June 25. All games are scheduled for the Cannock Hockey Club, Cannock, Staffordshire.
“We appreciate the fact that the FIH has
shown concern for both the U.S. and India teams, and has provided another venue for the
competition to take place,” said U.S. Field Hockey President, Sharon Taylor. “The
fact that we had to withdraw from India
was very disappointing, but our first concern is obviously for the safety and well-being
of our team and staff.
“Since
September, we have attempted to accommodate this competition at each site the FIH
recommended,” added Taylor. “We
were prepared to play in Johannesburg,
we agreed to move to Brussels,
we adjusted to Manchester
and we traveled to India,
only to have to leave under the same condition and concern for safety as the personnel at
the various embassies. However, we’re now looking forward to finally resolving the
final spot in the World Cup.”
After arriving in India on May 21, the team was advised to leave the
country following a U.S. Department of State warning that tensions between India and Pakistan had “…risen to serious levels, and
the risk of intensified military hostilities…cannot be ruled out.”
The U.S. team’s departure proceeded reports from
CNN and USA Today that U.S. government officials in Pakistan and India were evaluating evacuation plans for tens of
thousands of U.S. citizens from the two countries. Australian
officials have likewise prepared evacuation plans for 1,500 citizens.
“These were very unfortunate circumstances, but at no time were we going to
put the team at risk,” said U.S. head coach Tracey
Belbin. “We had excellent professional support from our
travel party including (USOC security chief) Larry Buendorf,
Shiv (US men’s coach Jagday) and (USA Asst. Director of Elite Teams)
Kate Roberts. The girls themselves
were great. They were very focused and tried not to be distracted by the events that were
happening around them. They were ready to play the games.”
The oft-rescheduled series became
necessary when the U.S.
team was unable to travel to the World Cup Qualifying tournament in France in Sept. 2001
following the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11. At that time, the FIH proposed an
alternative qualifying method for the U.S. by allowing the team to play the
Qualifier’s 7th place team in a best of three series at a site proposed by
the Qualifier team. India eventually captured 7th place at the qualifier by
virtue of wins over Uruguay, France and Kazakhstan.
The
scheduling of the series was delayed, however, when a controversial ending in a Qualifier
crossover game between Ireland and Lithuania sparked a series of
protests and appeals that eventually made its way to the Court for Arbitration in Sport in
Lausanne, Switzerland. The court upheld the original rulings from the
Qualifier with Ireland claiming a spot in
the World Cup while Lithuania was deemed to have
withdrawn from the qualifying tournament.
The scheduling conflicts were compounded when the FIH moved the inaugural Champions
Challenge from India to South Africa citing the tense
political climate in the Middle East. Subsequent plans for
the series to be played in South Africa, Belgium and England were rejected by India or withdrawn from
consideration.
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