India, Aug. 13 -- India's men and women begin their FIH Hockey World Cup campaigns this weekend at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. Both teams have been drawn into Pool D of their respective draw, and, catastrophe forbidding, should make it out of the first stage. The bigger question is what happens next; not since the 1970s have the Indian teams finished in the top four. But, with both units showing great promise and improvement in the last eighteen months, 2026 may yet reshape that narrative and bring an end to that drought.

India's men have not stood on a World Cup podium since they won the whole thing in 1975. That is fifty-one years of trying, and mostly failing - since 2000, their best World Cup finish is sixth, ...