Mumbai, Dec 9 (IANS): The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has invited South Africa and Canada to join the Men's FIH Pro League season after Australia and New Zealand decided to give the tournament a miss due to the strict Covid-19 regulations imposed by their respective governments. The FIH said the two nations competing in the Hockey Pro League "is temporary and limited to this edition only".

This decision by the FIH Executive Board, in its last meeting of the year on Wednesday, has raised a few eyebrows in international hockey circles as South Africa is currently the hotbed of Covid-19 with a new variant Omicron spreading fast in the country.

"It's great that both South Africa and Canada are joining the FIH Hockey Pro League. Both teams are the first ones from Africa and North America to join the Men's League, which is excellent for the growth and globalisation of hockey," FIH CEO Thierry Weil commented.

The 9-team FIH Pro League, which started early next month, will now have the reigning Olympic and World Champion Belgium as the top contender along with the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, England, India, and Spain as other teams in the fray for the two-match competition to be played on a home-and-away basis. The FIH Pro League matches started on October 16 with the latest round matches involving the Netherlands and Belgium played on November 26 and 28,

The next round of the matches start on February 4, 2022, with Spain taking on England in Valencia.

South Africa get into action on February 8, taking on the Netherlands at the University of North West, Potchefstroom. Canada will take on India at the same venue on the same day. On February 9, 2022. South Africa and Canada will meet India and the Netherlands respectively on the next day. The second match of the two-match series involving these four countries will be played at Potchefstroom on February 12 and 13.

Considering that FIH was recently forced to put on hold the Women's Junior World Cup in South Africa due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently postpone the event indefinitely, the latest decision to involve South Africa seems a bit premature.

It is not clear when the situation will improve and teams will be able to travel to South Africa to play their matches. Many countries have banned travel to South Africa and it is not clear whether the teams would be able to travel to the African nation for the matches in February 2022. Though there a couple of months before the matches in South AFrica will be played but our experience with the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020 proves that it takes a lot of time for things related to the virus to settle down.

The first Pro League matches of the year in 2022 will involve the women's teams of China and India. They will take place on January 31 - February 1 in Thailand, where both teams will be to play the Women's Asia Cup 2022, the release said.

In the same EB meeting, the FIH also decided to postpone the Women's Junior World Cup without giving any new dates.

"Regarding the FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup South Africa 2021, which was initially scheduled for this month but had to be put "on hold" because of the Omicron variant outbreak, the EB has decided that this event should be postponed and that South Africa should have priority for hosting it," the FIH said in a release on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the FIH has also thanked Hockey India for their "outstanding work in hosting a magnificent FIH Odisha Hockey Men's Junior World Cup" at Bhubaneswar.