India and Pakistan don't play bilateral series against each other anymore. Next month, they'll share a hockey pitch in Punjab anyway. The explanation isn't a thaw in relations - it's a specific carve-out in India's sports policy that's been there the whole time.
Pakistan will compete in the Men's Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament, hosted in India from October 27 to November 5, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann confirmed. The six-team field includes India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea, with matches split between Jalandhar and Mohali. Oman and Bangladesh have been named as reserve teams in case any side withdraws.
Run under the Asian Hockey Federation, the tournament is normally an annual fixture but wasn't held last
year. India enter as two-time defending champions, having won in Chennai in 2023 and Hulunbuir, China in 2024.
The Policy That Explains the Contradiction
Here's the rule doing the actual work: India's central sports policy bars any bilateral engagement with Pakistan - a restriction tied directly to Operation Sindoor, the brief military offensive India launched after the Pahalgam terror attack killed 26 people. A one-on-one India-Pakistan series is off the table entirely under current policy.
Multi-lateral tournaments are treated differently. Per the Sports Ministry, adherence to the Olympic Charter means India won't block Pakistani athletes from competing on Indian soil when the event involves several nations rather than just the two of them. Mann summed up the distinction plainly: "There is no problem in multi-national tournaments. Maybe individual series [India and Pakistan] cannot take place. "
In other words: no bilateral series, but a six-team tournament with both countries in the field clears the bar.
This Isn't a New Rule, But It Hasn't Always Held
The multi-lateral exception isn't being invented for this event - it's existing policy being applied again. But it's also not been consistently smooth. Pakistan withdrew from last year's Junior Hockey World Cup in Tamil Nadu, citing high tensions in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, despite that tournament falling under the same multi-lateral framework that's letting them compete this time. Whether Pakistan's participation in October actually goes ahead as planned, given that recent precedent, remains something to watch as the tournament approaches.
Where the Matches Will Be Played
Mann laid out the venue split clearly: league-stage matches will be played in Jalandhar, while the semifinals and final are reserved for Mohali. He also framed the event as a milestone for the state specifically, pledging full support and calling it "the first-ever tournament in the state's history" for Punjab to host at this scale.
The Federation Relationship Behind the Scenes
Hockey India secretary general Bhola Nath Singh used the announcement to underline that the sport's administrative relationship between the two countries remains cordial, even as the political relationship stays frozen. "I want to say this on record that we share very good relations between the hockey federations of India and Pakistan," Singh said, adding a personal detail: "You must have noticed that whenever I go, if the Indian team defeats Pakistan, I meet the Pakistani team first. The boys [players] there also show immense respect. "
What this tournament actually demonstrates is a fairly narrow, technical distinction rather than any broader shift: sport-specific multi-lateral policy carved out under Olympic Charter obligations, sitting entirely separate from the diplomatic freeze governing everything else between the two nations. India and Pakistan can be on the same hockey pitch in Mohali next month, and still not play each other in a bilateral series for the foreseeable future - both facts drawing from the same rulebook, just different clauses of it.
