Hockey: Top-six finish on agenda for Kiwi's eighth Cup

The Black Sticks head into their eighth World Cup still chasing a breakthrough into the top six. They have finished no higher than seventh since the last time the tournament was played in India - 28 years ago.

The World Cup was first played in 1971. That was not without some controversy as the planned tournament in Pakistan was switched to Spain because of "political unrest".

New Zealand failed to qualify for that 10-team tournament, but two years later finished seventh in the Netherlands. They repeated that effort in 1975 in Malaysia, but did not qualify when the tournament was held after a three-year gap, and increased to 14 teams, in Argentina in 1978.

The four-yearly cycle began with the 1982 World Cup in India when it was contested by 14 teams.

In 1986, New Zealand slipped to ninth at the London tournament and then failed to qualify for the subsequent World Cups in Pakistan and Australia.

New Zealand finished 10th, of 14, in the Netherlands in 1998 and have continued to improve since.

The number of teams was increased to 16 in 2002 in Malaysia where New Zealand finished ninth. Four years later, with 12 teams, in Germany, the Black Sticks finished eighth.

This year's World Cup will again be contested by 12 teams.

As hosts, India qualify automatically. They are joined by the Continental champions, Canada (Pan American), South Africa (Africa), Australia (Oceania), and England (Europe).

The English are joined by defending champions, and European runners-up, Germany along with beaten European semifinalists Netherlands and Spain.

The remaining three spots have been filled by the three World Cup qualifying tournament winners New Zealand, Pakistan and Argentina.

The top eight teams on the latest FIH rankings, Germany (1), Australia (2), Spain (3), Netherlands (4), Korea (5), England (6), Pakistan (7) and New Zealand (8), are joined at the tournament by Canada (11), India (12), South Africa (13) and Argentina (14).

Missing from the top 10 are Belgium (9) and China (10).