Hockey: National teams rate with public, but it's tough at the top

The sport that won hearts in Sydney sustains its appeal, writes PETER MARTINEZ.

Hockey can look back on a year when its popularity rose a few more notches on the back of the performance of the women's team at the Sydney Olympics.

The proof was that the three home tests against Australia drew healthy crowds in Wellington (4500), Albany (3000) and Hamilton (2500), as well as an impressive television audience.

New Zealand Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel said the men's test against India in Wellington also drew 3000.

Television ratings for the women's and men's games were also satisfying - between 170,000 and 200,000, he said.

The women's team, having won the affections of the country with their skill and spirit in Sydney, have big assignments this year.

They have been seeded second at the Commonwealth Games, and will also compete in the Six Nations in Macau, a tournament for the top six countries in the world which New Zealand have regularly attended since 1998, and the World Cup in Perth.

But they will be without two of their most consistent and goal-hungry assets - long-serving, world-class forwards Anna Lawrence and Mandy Smith - who have retired.

Smith, 29, played 150 internationals for New Zealand since 1990.

"After 12 years it's time to make way for the next generation of players," said Smith, who was voted one of the top three personalities of the 1998 World Cup in Holland.

Lawrence's career highlight was the team's achievement at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

"It was great to get something tangible like a bronze medal," said Lawrence, who announced her retirement after her final provincial game for Auckland in the national championship last year.

She was the national captain for five years and played a key role in lifting the profile of women's hockey and the country's world ranking from 23rd in 1995 to the top six.

In August, the team went to Amsterdam and finished fifth in the Champions Trophy, registering only one win, 2-1 over Spain.

But although they proved they deserved their world ranking, the next step up seems some distance away. They lost all seven tests this year against an Australian side who were in a rebuilding phase and had a new coach.

"The intensity and the skills of Australia were a good reminder for us again of how tough it is to compete with the top two or three countries in the world," coach Jan Borren said after the series in Australia.

At world level, Australia, Argentina, the Netherlands and Germany remain the standards New Zealand aspire to.

The men's team, aiming to recapture the halcyon days when they were Olympic champions in Montreal in 1976, travel to Kuala Lumpur for the World Cup next month and then to the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

For them, last year's highlight was a battle of the boardroom with the International Hockey Federation.

New Zealand were originally omitted from the World Cup qualifying tournament in Edinburgh.

The national federation began court proceedings to challenge the international organisation's decision to exclude them.

The players could not understand how, after finishing 10th at the last World Cup, they were now ranked behind countries such as Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Wales.

But New Zealand were eventually included in the qualifying tournament after Zimbabwe withdrew because of a lack of funding.

They clinched the seventh and final World Cup slot from the tournament with a 4-0 victory over Canada.

Their reward is to play world champions the Netherlands on the opening day of the Kuala Lumpur World Cup.

In 1975, when the tournament was also held in Kuala Lumpur, New Zealand played the opening match of the tournament against hosts Malaysia.

At the junior World Cups this year, New Zealand took fifth place at the women's championship in Argentina in May and their male counterparts finished ninth in Hobart in October.

The women's results were all the more remarkable because they were last-minute replacements for France in the 15-team championship, and team members had to chip in $1500 each to make the trip.

The under-21 men were expected to do much better than the ninth placing they ended up with after beating Australia in the Oceania qualifying playoff.

However, these results augur well for the sport's future.

At national level, Auckland won the men's and women's national titles.

In all, it has been a busy hockey year at international and domestic level, but Patel isn't complaining. He is happy the sport is on a roll.

When he took up his role with the federation 12 years ago, the annual turnover was $1 million. That has now doubled.

He speaks with enthusiasm about the crowds attracted to matches here against the Indian men and Australian women, and the growing numbers the sport is attracting.

"We are getting better at hosting matches," he says.

"In terms of numbers we are getting more people than ever to the games.

"Five years ago, the cry from the players was they were not getting enough international hockey. Now, we have to be careful we get the balance right."

- NZPA