Pakistan's 456-strong contingent for the upcoming South Asian Games in India has been cleared by its government to participate in the event starting February 5.
India made the grade in the four-nation tournament in Japan after the Koreans beat Japan in the last league match.
Since 2012, 44 Indians have been anointed as grandmasters -- the highest achievement in chess, points out Arvind Subramanian, economist and former chief economic adviser to the government.
The loss will hurt the Indians badly as a gold here would have guaranteed a direct qualification in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
World champions Australia warded off a spirited challenge from South Korea to carve a 4-2 victory and move to the top of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament standings, on Wednesday.
Once renowned stars of their own sporting arena, former India hockey players Gagan Ajit Singh and Rajpal Singh will be in incharge of security at the PCA stadium, in Mohali, during ongoing ICC World Twenty20.
Leaving behind off-field controversies, the Indian women's hockey team on Saturday left for Rosario, Argentina to participate in the August 28 to September 11 World Cup.
India scored a field goal and converted a penalty-corner to beat Malaysia 2-0 in a 40-minute hockey practice match in Doha on Tuesday.
Asian Games champions India came from a goal down to clinch an unimpressive 2-1 victory over hard-working Japan on the opening day of the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Wednesday. Squandering a series of scoring chances created by defence-splitting crosses that sailed across the goalmouth, India managed to earn full points against the lowly-ranked rivals through goals from young drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh (24th minute) and captain Sardar Singh (32nd) after Kenji Kitazato (17th) gave Japan the lead. Earlier, Pakistan banked on two goals from Muhammad Arslan Qadir to open their campaign with a 3-1 victory over Canada in extremely humid conditions at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium. Qadir opened the account with a field goal in the 27th minute and converted a penalty corner a minute later to give Pakistan a two-goal lead. Canada then pulled one back through Richard Hildreth's flash strike, but Muhammad Arshad capitalised on a 52nd-minute penalty corner to seal Pakistan's victory.
India's hockey team ended its European tour on a high, comfortably defeating Spain 4-2 in its last engagement to win the three-Test series by a 2-1 margin, in Terrassa, on Thursday.
Six-time champions and title holders Germany continued their fine form and defeated New Zealand 2-1 in a closely-fought Pool C encounter to virtually seal their place in the quarter-final of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup, in Lucknow on Friday.
Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh pumped in four goals as India swamped Bangladesh 9-0 to notch up their second straight victory in Group B men's league of the Asian Games hockey competition at the Aoti field in Guangzhou, on Wednesday.
India lost 1-4 to Korea in a play-off for the 9-12 places at the women's field hockey World Cup in Madrid.
India were 3-0 up in the 42nd minute before Paul-Philipp Kaufmann and Michel Struthoff struck for Germany in the 44th and 57th minutes respectively.
Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant hat-trick as India pulled off a sensational come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Olympic champions Germany in a fiercely-contested 5th to 8th places classification match in the Hero Hockey World League Finals in Delhi on Friday.
India's women's hockey team clinched the bronze medal at the Asian Games, beating Japan 2-1 in the third place play-off, in Incheon, on Wednesday.
Hosts India drew curtains to their disastrous campaign at the Hero Junior Men's Hockey World Cup by finishing a disappointing 10th after losing to arch-rivals Pakistan in a classification match at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, in New Delhi on Sunday.
The National Associations of Australia, England, India, Malaysia, and New Zealand have all put up extremely strong cases in an attempt to lure the sport's top properties to their territory, the FIH said.
A lacklustre India squandered a one-goal advantage and went down 1-3 to Belgium in the quarter-finals of the men's hockey competition at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. The eight-time Olympic gold medallists took the lead through a fine field goal from Akashdeep Singh in the 15th minute before Belgium scored three field goals through Sebastien Dockier (34th, 45th minute) and Tom Boon (50th) to dash India's hopes of their first medal after their last gold in 1980 at Moscow.
A scrappy India wasted chances galore as South Africa dished out a spirited performance to beat the hosts 3-1 in the third hockey Test in New Delhi on Thursday and keep alive their hopes in the five-match series.
The huge gulf between the two sides was evident as India bettered its 86-year-old record when it defeated USA with a 24-1 margin in Olympics.
The Asian Games normally serves as the Olympic qualifiers but there was some confusion after the Hangzhou Asian Games were postponed from last year to this year due to the COVID-19 situation in China.
India lost 2-5 to China in a Group A league match of the sixth Junior Women's Asia Cup hockey tournament in Bangkok on Monday.
A young Indian side put up a spirited fight before going down 3-4 to six-time champions Australia in the opening encounter of the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament in Ipoh on Saturday.
Belgium set up an intriguing men's Olympic hockey final against Argentina after they dumped out the world's second-ranked team the Netherlands with a resounding 3-1 semi-final victory on Tuesday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
A sore threat is often the price he ends up paying for unleashing his verbal volleys and PR Sreejesh said he had come prepared.
A record number of 634 sportspersons were on Friday cleared by the Sports Ministry to compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games, surpassing the 572 athletes in the last edition of continental showpiece in Jakarta in 2018.
India's hopes of a podium finish were dashed as they squandered lead on two occasions and went down 2-3 to Ireland in the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Friday.
The Indian men's hockey team commenced their Asian Games campaign on a rousing note, blanking Sri Lanka 8-0 following Rupinder Pal Singh's super hat-trick on Sunday.
The Indian hockey team went down fighting 3-4 to South Africa in its last friendly match ahead of the Tri-Nation tournament at La Albericia, Spain, on Wednesday. India's goal-scorers were Danish Mujtaba, Sandeep Singh and SK Uthappa while Clinton Panther, Thoton McDade, Llyod Norris-Jones and Justin Reid Ross were on target for South Africa.
Jaypee Punjab Warriors stopped Dabang Mumbai's resurgent run by inflicting a 5-1 defeat on the home team and climbed up to the top of the table in the Hockey India League on Friday.
The opening day of the Hero Hockey World League Final witnessed a major upset as lower-ranked Argentina put up a spirited display to outclass London Olympic silver medallist Netherlands 5-2, while world number two Australia eked out a narrow 3-2 win over Belgium in Pool B at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Friday.
After remaining unbeaten in their first three matches of the tour, World No.5 India were handed a lesson in hockey by the Kookaburras with Blake Govers (15th, 60th minutes) and Jeremy Hayward (20th, 59th) finding the net twice each.
Spain upset last year's bronze medallist Netherlands 2-1 in a classification match on Saturday to set up a clash against Argentina in the fifth-sixth place play-off of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup, in Lucknow on Saturday.
After their opening match high, the Indian hockey eves got a reality check when they were handed out a 0-3 defeat by Japan in their second pool game at the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Tuesday.
Rain spoiled India's party as they struggled in heavy pitch conditions to lose 0-1 to Olympic champions Argentina and crash out of title race in the Hockey World League (HWL) Final, in Bhubaneswar, on Friday.
Failing to sustain an aggressive start, the Indian men's hockey team went down to Spain 1-4 in its third match of the ongoing Europe Tour in Sant Cugat del Valles.
India began the opening quarter with a structured attack. It was striker SV Sunil who took the team's first potential shot on goal in the opening minute but was well defended by New Zealand goalkeeper Richard Joyce.
Australia retained the men's hockey World Cup crown after outplaying Olympic silver medallists The Netherlands 6-1 in the final at the Kyocera Stadium in The Hague on Sunday. Chris Cirielo's three penalty-corner conversions was the feature of the contest that saw Australia retain the trophy they won in New Delhi in 2010.
