Four-time champion Pakistan to miss FIH Hockey World Cup.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan, due to their inability to finish among the top four spots in the Asia Cup, will miss the Federation Internationale de Hockey (FIH) Men's Hockey World Cup 2023.

The four leading Asian hockey-playing nations - India, Japan, Malaysia, and Korea - will be seen in action in the 16-team event, starting in Indian cities, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, within nine-day time.

For the first time, sixteen countries are competing in the Hockey World Cup that earlier was restricted to just 12 countries.

Yet, four-time world champions Pakistan who are ranked 17th in the world are missing the four-yearly action.

'It is really unfortunate that a country like Pakistan is not part of the 16-team World Cup. We cannot get an easier opportunity of qualifying for the event. It was just a cakewalk, yet we missed it. As a former world champion, I feel really bad and depressed not to see Pakistan as one of the contesting teams in India,' Khawaja Junaid, one of the members of the World Cup 1994 winning team said.

'I am really concerned about the Pakistan hockey players who could have gained necessary exposure by playing against the world's best teams,'...