The Commonwealth Games have a rich sporting tradition dating back to 1930. In its initial iteration, the multi-sport event featured 11 nations and 400 athletes. Now, in its 22nd edition, 4,600 athletes from 72 countries and territories will take part in an event known as the Friendly Games in the English city of Birmingham.
Hockey has been played at the Commonwealth Games since 1998 and in that first year, it was Australia that won the gold medals in the men’s and women’s competitions. Malaysia’s men and England’s women won silver, while England’s men and New Zealand’s women won bronze.
Australia’s men have dominated ever since, with Kookaburras winning the title a record six times with New Zealand, Malaysia. India And Pakistan is sharing the silver medal between them.
Australia’s men sit at number one at FIH World With the rankings and memory of a stellar campaign at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in which they lost to Belgium in a shoot-out, it would be a brave man to suggest that head coach Colin Bach and his team could not make it to Super Seven. gold medal.
Katrina Powell is expected to lead Australia’s women’s lead this year and win gold as head coach. Certainly, based on the bronze medal won by the team at the recent FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022, HockeyRussia could be well on its way to winning its fifth gold medal. Expect Stephanie Kershaw to be the dynamo that takes Australia past midfield, while Jocelyn Bartram leads a rock-solid defense.
The New Zealand women are the defending champions and are looking to retain that position after a World Cup campaign that started off surprisingly but faltered in the quarter-finals. With victories over India and England, New Zealand topped their pool in the World Cup and finished fifth in the competition.
Like Australia, despite being out of a season of FIH Pro League Hockey, the team has worked hard and enjoyed an intense period of international competition during a three-month stint in Europe and, in the words of assistant coach Shea MacLews. See, Chances of winning international medals in Commonwealth Games.
The New Zealand men don’t have the same intense international calendar as the women’s team, but the Test matches against Australia and the Netherlands will certainly have the skills and the mind. The Black Sticks are building a squad that features exciting young talents like Sean Findlay and Joseph Morrison, who go hand in hand with team stalwarts like Hugo Inglis, Captain Blair Tarrant and Ken Russell.
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Both men and women of India will be in search of medals. Both teams enjoyed an exceptional first season in the FIH Pro League, finishing third in their respective leagues. India’s men will take the confidence of their Pro League win against England, as well as the incredible match that ended in a 3-3 draw with Belgium. Both sets of results show that India is ready to challenge for the first gold medal in the event.
India women will still be smart from their World Cup experience. Janke Schopmann and his team reached Amsterdam on the back of several good FIH Pro League results, including victories over the Netherlands and Argentina (currently ranked world number one and two teams). However, in the World Cup, it crashed as India finished ninth after losing their pool match to New Zealand and then the crossover match to Spain.
Players like penalty corner specialist Gurjit Kaur, goalkeeper and captain Savita and young star Lalremsiami are expected to give India a comeback in Birmingham.
Potentially one of the most exciting teams to reach Birmingham is the South African men’s team. The team trampled the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 with its dazzling pace and courage to take chances in the attack. The Qasim brothers, Mustafa and Dayan are now well-known players among hockey fans, but penalty corner specialists Conor Beauchamp and Matt Guise-Brown also keep an eye on them.
South African women have their own skillful star who can cause chaos among even the most convincing defenses in the form of Onthayl Zulu. Only 22, the forward was a star in both the junior and senior women’s World Cups and when she starts running into the defence, the audience holds their breath wondering what magic the show will be like. At the other end of the pitch, there is another star of the Junior World Cup in Jean-le du Toit. An ace defender and a brave first runner on defensive penalty corners, du Toit is an important part of South Africa’s defence.
The Welsh men’s team finished ninth in 2018 and their previous highest placed seventh in 2002. The women ranked ninth in 2018 and their previous best was eighth in 2010. Both the teams will be hoping for a higher end this time and of course, in their ranks, they have a lot of talent which can deliver results. In recent Test matches, Wales lost to South Africa, but they are a team that will quickly learn from international experience.
Rupert Shipperly, Dan Kyriakides, Lewis Prosser and Jacob Draper all bring experience representing both Wales and Great Britain, while Luke Hawker adds flexibility to defense and Gareth Furlong embodies the team’s never-give-up work ethic.
The look of the women of Wales is similar to that of the team. Sarah Jones, Leah Wilkinson and Rose Thomas are all multi-capped for Great Britain and Wales, with both Wilkinson and Jones being part of the Tokyo Olympic bronze medal-winning squad. Add in the talented Xena Hughes, Isabel Howell and co-captain Sean French and you have a team that can get Wales’ best result ever.
Scotland’s men and women both held respectable positions in 2018. Men were placed in sixth place while women were placed in seventh place. This time all eyes will be on captain and goal scorer extraordinaire Alan Forsyth as he earns his 200 combined Great Britain and Scotland cap in his first match in Birmingham. Sarah Robertson will take on an equally important leadership role as she uses all the experience she has gained in Tokyo to lead her exciting squad to a high position in Birmingham.
Kenya’s women are participating in the Commonwealth Games for only the second time. They first participated in 1998 when they finished 10th. The team has been making great progress in recent years with a growing grassroots community, which is turning into success at an elite level. While Kenya will not be realistically vying for a medal, they could cause some ups and downs along the way.
The Pakistan men finished second in 2006 and would love to be on the podium again. The national team has grown out of its prime days in the 1970s and 80s in recent years. He won a gold medal in the Asian Champions Trophy in 2018 but it was his last significant win. While the lack of recent international experience can be a burden, expect the team to be competitive in every match, led by veteran head coach Seigfried Ekman.
Neither the Canadian men nor women have ever missed the Commonwealth Games, with the women’s team enjoying its highest position at the 2018 Brisbane Games. Women are also behind a highly educative World Cup. They didn’t win a match, but they showed that, on their day, they could match it with the best, with high-ranking India and Korea. The entire team showed a huge store of energy and resilience, and goalkeeper Rowan Harris and captain Natalie Sorriso were among the players who shone in Teresa.
The men’s team hasn’t been in major international action since the Tokyo Olympics. They lost several multi-capped players to retirement after that incident, so head coach Peter Milkovich will look for some steep learning curves. Eight of the team have fewer than 10 caps, although Taylor Curran, John Smith and Keegan Pereira are among a handful of experienced players. Wherever they end up, expect Canada to fight every match.
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Ghana is another nation where hockey is developing at a grassroots pace and the results are visible up the chain. Most of the players on both the men’s and women’s teams are drawn from teams representing the national services, police, army and fire service.
This edition will be the first time the Ghana men have qualified for the Commonwealth Games, while the women’s team first appeared in 2018, where they finished 10th. For Ghanaian women, the Commonwealth Games are a great opportunity to test themselves on the world stage as they often fail to qualify for major events as they lose to South Africa.
For both teams, the event in Birmingham will provide an invaluable experience as the teams continue to grow and develop. For their part, athletes can be trusted to bring their own style of fast-flowing, attacking hockey, and the real joie de vivre to the form of competition.
Host nation England will have to go into this competition in the hope of medals for both the teams. The England men’s team showed tremendous potential in the FIH Pro League with some exciting and close matches, including a 2-2 draw with Belgium and a thrilling 4-3 loss to India. The team is not finished yet, but with the likes of Zach Wallace, Will Callen, Ian Sloan and penalty corner specialists Nick Bandurak and Sam Ward on the team, the host nation may be on the business end.
England’s women were knocked out of the Women’s World Cup after a narrow defeat at the hands of eventual silver medalist Argentina. Like the men, this is a side that is still building but there is plenty of talent in the ranks. Dependable defenders Holly Pierne-Webb, Laura Unsworth and Gisele Ainsley provide a platform from which momentum traders Hannah Martin, Lily Owsley and Ellie Reyer can attack. Tess Howard is turning into a force to be reckoned with in the circle. England have never failed to win a medal in the women’s competition, but have the ambition to go gold this time in front of the home crowd.
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