KUALA LUMPUR - The Men’s Hockey Junior Asia Cup, scheduled to be held at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh from July 1-10, has been postponed for the third time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) chief executive officer Datuk Tayyab Ikram said the teams had been informed of the decision to move the tournament to another day following consultations with the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) and the government of Bangladesh.
This is also due to Bangladesh recently introducing flight and travel restrictions for those entering the country in the wake of the latest surge in COVID-19 cases as well as the renewed lockdowns and travel restrictions in several of the participating countries.
“Our decision is also motivated by the AHF’s concern for athletes’ health and welfare and the fairness of this important competition,” he said in the letter sent to the participating nations, including the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC).
Tayyab said the AHF and BHF would meet soon to discuss the next step and provide further update as soon as possible.
The Under-21 tournament, a qualifier for the 2021 Junior World Cup, was originally scheduled to be held on June 4-12, 2020 but it was postponed to Jan 21-30 this year before being pushed further back to July 1-10.
Meanwhile, Malaysian team manager I. Vikneswaran said that despite the postponement, the team was still focused and determined to qualify for the World Cup.
“We have to face the situation as the pandemic is getting bad, so it is best to postpone the event. As for now, we will have to redraw our plan.
“But the mentality of the players is always positive because they know that this situation was likely to happen due to the pandemic,” he told Bernama.
Apart from hosts Bangladesh, the other nations competing in the tournament are China, Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. - Bernama. May 7, 2021
