The Indian men’s and women’s hockey team will not be part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after pulling out of the event citing COVID-19 concerns and discriminatory quarantine rules Indians in United Kingdom. This move comes just a day after England pulled out of the FIH Men’s Junior World Cup to be held in Bhubaneswar next month, citing a number of COVID- related concerns including the Indian government’s mandatory 10-day quarantine protocol for all UK nationals.
India had last week updated its travel advisory for citizens coming from the United Kingdom in a reciprocal measure. The updated travel advisory mentions states that all British nationals arriving in India from the UK will have to undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine from Monday irrespective of their vaccination status as part of a reciprocal action against the UK’s new international travel rules with similar measures for Indians.
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This came in the backdrop of the UK recently refusing to recognise India’s COVID-19 vaccination certificates and imposed a 10-day hard quarantine on travellers from the country even if they were fully vaccinated.
Before their departure, all Indian citizens flying to the UK should take a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report within 72 hours of flight’s departure, regardless of their vaccination status, that is, regardless of being double vaccinated with Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India. They also have to book and pay for day-2 and day-8 RT-PCR tests to be taken in England.
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On Tuesday, October 5, 2021, Hockey India president Gyanandro Ningombam communicated the federation’s decision to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra.
In the letter, prioritising the Asian Games, which is the continental qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympics, HI highlighted the 32-day gap window between the Birmingham Games (July 28-August 8) and the Hangzhou Asian Games (September 10-25) and also added that they can’t risk sending its players to the UK which has been one of the worst affected countries by the coronavirus pandemic.
“You will appreciate that the Asian games is the Continental qualification event for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and keeping the priority of the Asian Games in mind, Hockey India can not risk any members of the Indian teams contracting COVID-19 during the Commonwealth Games," Ningombam wrote.
(With PTI Inputs)
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