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India draws tough group in World Cup hockey

The luck of the draw was against India on Sunday, when the Federation Internationale de Hockey released the draw for the upcoming men's World Cup hockey championship, to be held in Utrecht, from May 21 to June 1, 1998.

The preliminary round group will include Australia, England, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland and Spain. The other group will bring together Canada, Germany, India, Olympic Champions Netherlands, New Zealand and South Korea.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the semifinals.

The women's world championships will also be conducted concurrently at the same venue, with a qualifying round to be held earlier at Harare from August 1-12, 1997. Six nations will qualify from that tournament. Those playing in Harare will be England, 1992 Olympic gold medalists Spain, while Australia (the defending champions), Argentina (runners up) Germany, Netherlands, South Korea and the United States have already qualified for the final.