Organisers get geography wrong

While the Indian hockey team is busy sweating it out for the Champions Challenge in Belgium, the tournament organisers have goofed up even before the competition begins, reports Uthra Ganesan.

While the Indian hockey team is busy sweating it out for the Champions Challenge in Boom (Belgium) beginning June 23, the tournament organisers have goofed up even before the competition begins. The tournament website has the Indian map — along with that of other countries in the subcontinent — shown with glaring inaccuracies.

HT Image

While Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is shown as part of Pakistan — as opposed to the official Indian map — the rest of the map is also full of mistakes.

In the east, the boundaries of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are different from the official Indian map, while Bangladesh also has a skewed boundary. Down south, even the coastline of Sri Lanka has been distorted. Its southernmost areas have been shown as a flat line instead of a tapering coast.

No one from the IHF was available for an answer on the issue.

Factually too, the website lists wrong information in the team profile section. Though India are currently ranked eighth in world hockey rankings and Argentina are seventh, the website has listed the two nations in reverse order. India are to take part in the tournament from June 23 to July 1. Argentina, England, New Zealand, Japan and hosts Belgium are the other countries taking part in the event. The winner of the meet will qualify for the elite Champions Trophy in 2008, to be held in Amsterdam.