Tuesday, 19 January 2021
The decision to strip Belarus of host status for this May’s Men s World Ice Hockey Championship comes almost 50 years to the day after the first Hockey World Cup on grass was postponed because of fears that the competition would take place in an atmosphere of violence .
It was to have taken place in Lahore, but postponement came little more than a fortnight before it was due to begin. It was eventually held in October 1971 and staged 8,400 kilometres away in Barcelona.
The World Cup idea had come from India and Pakistan, then the two dominant nations in international hockey. Between them, they had won every Olympic tournament since 1928.