CHENNAI: The Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) will take a call in August to decide if the Asian Champions Trophy (Men's) should be postponed to 2021. It's slated to be held in Dhaka from November 17-27 but there are obvious doubts over it because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"As of this moment, it is on," AHF Chief Executive, Tayyab Ikram, said. "We will review the situation in early August."
With 90,619 confirmed coronavirus cases, Bangladesh has been one of the worst affected Asian nations.
The AHF will also be speaking to the organisers of the Asian Champions Trophy (women's) early next week to start looking at potential new dates. As per the original schedule, it was slated to be held in Donghae from June 14-21, but was indefinitely postponed as South Korea became one of the first Asian countries to feel the effects of the virus.
"Given this situation and the escalating worldwide coronavirus crisis, the AHF has carefully assessed all aspects of the impact on our events and come to the conclusion that the postponement of the Bangabandhu Al-Arafah Islami Bank Junior Asia Cup Dhaka 2020 & the Women's Asian Champions Trophy Donghae 2020 is unavoidable to protect the safety and health of our athletes, officials and the broader hockey family and to enable a fair and successful event at a later date," AHF had announced via a press release at the time.
"We are talking to the host South Korea but it is very unlikely to announce any date under the present situation," Ikram said. Even though Korea has significantly flattened the curve since the outbreak began earlier this year, new infections have cropped up in recent times. All member federations of the AHF are constantly being updated on the status of the ACT, Ikram added. "Yes, of course, we are communicating with all national federations regularly."
From an Indian perspective, the Asian Champions Trophy is an important tournament for both the senior teams, especially in a year that's such as this. With no other competition to look forward to, the ACT could have provided much-needed match practice to both sides. If both the tournaments get postponed to next year or if there is an outright cancellation, it's likely that both the men and women could go up to 10 months without playing an official fixture.