Hockey Men's World Cup 2014: All you need to know

It’s all happening at The Hague Since 1982, the Hockey World Cup has been held every four years and this time the world’s finest descend on The Hague in the Netherlands. The Hockey Park, including two stadiums Kyocera and GreenFields, will host all 76 games. Previous winners: 1971— Pakistan; 1973 — Holland; 1975 — India; 1978 — Pakistan; 1982 — Pakistan; 1986 — Australia; 1990 — The Netherlands; 1994 — Pakistan; 1998 — The Netherlands; 2002 — Germany; 2006 — Germany; 2010 — Australia. Aussies are the top guns The teams in the tournament are split in to two pools of six. Australia are ranked No.1 in the world in the men’s game and are the defending champions. Germany and the Netherlands are ranked second and third with England the fourth best in the world. Pool A Australia, Belgium, England, Malaysia, Spain and India. Pool B Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and South Africa. [caption id=“attachment_1550255” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of India skipper Sardar Singh. Getty Images[/caption] Do India have a chance? India, who had their only World Cup success 34 years ago in 1975 under Ajit Pal Singh, are ranked 8th in the world currently. So it won’t be easy. But everyone has a chance and if India can keep their game together in the final minutes, they will always be dangerous. Group stages Teams play each other once during the group stage. The winner of the Pool A will go on to play the runner-up of Pool B and vice versa in the semi-finals. Points and other rules Each team plays the other once in their respective groups, with the points to be awarded as follows: - Win: 3 points - Draw: 1 point to each team - Loss: 0 points The points scored by the teams will decide their standing in the group, and if that’s not possible, the following rules will come into play: - In case of same number of points, the team with more wins will be ranked higher. - In case both points and number of wins are the same, the team with better goal difference will be ranked higher. - If still equal, the team that has scored more goals will be ranked higher. - If still the deadlock stays, a shoot-out competition will decide the standings. If two or more times are tied, then each team will play a shoot-out competition against the other teams in the same sequence of play as in the pool. Schedule (IST): Group Stage: May 31 AUS vs MAL - 2 pm BEL vs IND - 7:30 pm ENG vs ESP - 9 pm June 1 GER vs SA - 2 pm NED vs ARG - 7:30 pm NZ vs KOR - 9 pm June 2 AUS vs ESP - 2 pm ENG vs IND - 7:30 pm MAL vs BEL - 9 pm June 3 SA vs NZ - 2 pm GER vs ARG - 7:30 pm NED vs KOR - 11:15 pm June 5 MAL vs ENG - 2 pm BEL vs AUS - 7:30 pm IND vs ESP - 9 pm June 6 NZ vs ARG - 4:30 pm KOR vs SA - 9 pm GER vs NED - 11:15 pm June 7 ESP vs BEL - 2 pm IND vs MAL - 6 pm ENG vs AUS - 7:30 pm June 8 NZ vs GER - 2 pm KOR vs ARG - 4:30 pm SA vs NED - 11:15 pm June 9 AUS vs IND - 2 pm ESP vs MAL - 6 pm BEL vs ENG - 11:15 pm June 10 ARG vs SA - 2 pm GER vs KOR - 4:30 pm NZ vs NED - 11:15 pm PLAYOFFS: June 12 11th/12th Place - 5 pm June 13 Semi-final 1 - 6:45 pm Semi-final 2 - 9:30 pm June 14 9th/10th place - 12 noon June 15 7th/8th place - 12 noon 5th/6th place - 2:15 pm 3rd/4th place - 4:30 pm Final - 18:45 pm