Another name for Hockey World Cup is Hockey World Championship. The International Hockey Federation organises the International hockey tournaments. The event was introduced in the year 1971 and is held quaterly, keeping in mind the summer olympics. This event will bridge the four years which is in between the International Hockey Tournament and the Summer olympics

The first Hockey World Cup was formed by a Pakistani Air Marshall called Nur Khan. However, the idea was proposed to the International Hockey Federation by the name Patrick Rowley who was the editor of a magazine known as “World Hockey”. The proposal was approved on twenty sixth of october 1969. The trophy was formulated by Bashir Moojid. In 1971 it was formally handed over to the president of the International Hockey Federation. The first Hockey World Championship was held in Barcelona, initially, it was supposed to be conducted in Pakistan, but due to political disputes, it was conducted in Barcelona.

Since, 1974, Women’s hockey world cup was also conducted by the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Association(IFWHA). The International Hockey Federation and the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Association were two different entities till 1981. They merged to form International Hockey Federation in 1981.

If you see the history of the event, you will notice that five teams have domineered the event. The most successful team among all of them was Pakistan, they have won the tourney four times and have appeared in the finals for six times. Three times the title has been awarded to Netherlands and they have appeared 5 times in the finals, twice to Germany and one time each to Australia and India. Australia is the only nation from Oceania to have won the Hockey World Cup.

All the teams have to get past the preliminary rounds and the accrediting rounds to get to the finals. At the finals the best team is awarded the Hockey World Cup or Hockey World Championship. As there are no limitations for the number of teams to participate in the Hockey World Cup, in 1971, only ten countries participated, the number slightly increased to fourteen in the 1978 Hockey World Cup and as the 2002 Hockey World Cup consisted of sixteen nations, it is considered to be the largest Hockey World Championship till date.

Another significance about the 1978 Hockey World Cup is that it was the only world cup that was conducted three years after the previous tournament. Since then it has only been quaterly. Nine countries have had the opportunity to host the World Cup, among all of them only Germany and Netherlands have won the tournament playing the host nation.

The previous Hockey World Cup was held in Germany in 2006. Germany won the championship for that year. The next Hockey World Cup is scheduled to be held in India in 2010. Another remarkable fact of Germany is that they have appeared almost in every semi-final of the Hockey World Cup since 1971.

Lets look forward to the next Hockey World Cup.