Tayyab Ikram, an FIH Grade 1 coach from Pakistan, has been appointed as FIH Coaching Projects Manager.

Tayyab’s role will be to implement the FIH’s Development and Coaching Committee (DCC) policies, under the supervision of Theo Ykema, the DCC Chairman. Based in Macau, his responsibilities will include management of the structure and planning of FIH coaching courses, with emphasis on improving the less developed nations’ coaching strategies and the development of coaching resources, including the FIH coaching website.

Tayyab Ikram, represented Lahore as a player from 1978-81 and can now bring 20 years of professional coaching and management experience to the position after working in Belgium, China and currently Macau.

Tayyab holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration and has also served on FIH’s Development and Coaching Committee, IT Task Force and as Manager of the FIH Coaching Group.

The New Zealand Hockey Federation (NZHF) withdrew the case it was taking to the Court of Arbitration over the non inclusion of their men's team in the 2001 World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

Ramesh Patel, the NZHF Chief Executive, advised that the decision not to go to court had been taken following eight weeks of dialogue with the FIH regarding some possible outcomes for New Zealand hockey in the future and the visit by Mark Petersen, the Chairman of NZHF, to the FIH Congress meeting in Brussels.

Petersen discussed the issue with the newly elected FIH Executive Board members and the new FIH President, Els van Breda Vriesman. He reported that the talks were positive and believed that New Zealand hockey had taken the case as far as it could.

In a press announcement, the NZHF said, "Currently there is sympathy and goodwill for New Zealand's position by FIH. By pursuing our case further, it may not have been in the best interests for the future of New Zealand's hockey. "We are naturally disappointed not to have our men's team in the 2001 Men's World Cup Qualifier but we had to consider some other contingencies. The court case sent a clear signal to FIH regarding our concerns and they have reacted positively in trying to resolve the issue."

Olympic gold medallists Australia were beaten 2-0 by Olympic silver medallists Argentina, in their first outing since the Sydney Olympics - a four test series in Argentina. The first and third tests were drawn 1-1 but Argentina won the second (2-1) and fourth (2-0). The final game, in Buenos Aires, was watched by 5,000 spectators.

The hockey tournament at the Sydney Olympics achieved the second highest ticket sales of all sports behind athletics. Hockey sold 497,000 tickets, representing 92% of all available tickets in the hockey stadium.

That shows a marked increase on the 1996 Atlanta Olympics sales. In Atlanta, 280,000 tickets were sold for hockey, putting the sport in seventh place, behind football, athletics, baseball, basketball, gymnastics and volleyball.

Jacques Brinkman of the Netherlands retired after the Sydney Olympics as the most capped male player of all time. He played 314 outdoor internationals in 13 years.

Britta Becker, Germany's outstanding player who has been capped 224 times, is expecting her second child.

Maurits Hendriks, coach of the Netherlands' gold medal winning team at the Sydney Olympics, has become Technical Director of the Royal Spanish HF for the next four years. The Spanish are to set up a high performance office in Terrassa.

Hendriks will be closely involved with preparing the Spanish Under 21 team for the Junior World Cup. After the 2002 World Cup, he will take over the coaching of the Spanish senior team from Toni Forellat. Spain are due to host the European Cup in 2003.

Going in the reverse direction is Marc Lammers who has moved from coaching the Spanish women to the same job with the Dutch women. The Netherlands men are now coached by Joost Bellaert who has the assistance of Michel van der Heuvel. Rabobank have renewed their sponsorship in the Netherlands until 2005.

Pakistan hockey is to receive 20 million rupees (£228,000), by the Pakistan government for the development of the sport. Artificial turfs are promised for various hockey centres in the country.

Cedric D'Souza has been recalled to coach India following their seventh place finish at the Sydney Olympics. He succeeds Vaseduvan Bhaskaran, the man who captained India to their eighth and last Olympic gold medal in 1980.

D'Souza missed India's first internationals since the Olympics because of an ear infection but was in command when India defeated Pakistan on strokes in the final of the Prime Minister's Gold Cup in Dhaka.

Tracy Belbin, the former Australian international, has had her contract as Head coach of the US women’s national team, renewed until 2004.

The United States FHA has named Ashley Collier as Director of High Performance, and promoted former High Performance Manager, Kate Roberts, to Assistant Director of High Performance. Collier will oversee all facets of the US men's and women's elite team programmes.

Padma Shri Dhanraj Pillay, Indian's mercurial centre forward, and veteran sports journalist Khalid Ansari, the owner of Mumbai's Mid Day newspaper, have been bestowed Padma Shri. That is a high honour awarded to sports personalities by the President of India.

Pakistan Railways have retained the Pakistan women's national title for a record fifth time in a row.

Kim Lammers scored all six goals for the Netherlands in a 6-2 victory over South Africa in an Under 21 international played at Cape Town.

A Bavarian team, Rot Weiss Munchen, won the German Indoor title for the first time, defeating title holder Durkheim 7-4 in the final after extra time.

Kenya's 9-0 defeat by Belgium in the Akhbar el Yom tournament at Cairo equalled their worst ever result, by Great Britain in 1979.

In the same tournament, Kenya also suffered their heaviest ever defeat by Egypt (8-1).

FIH Master Coach Horst Wein has produced a new CD, "The Key to Better Hockey", which introduces coaches to a training program that takes into account each young player's current physical and mental development. The program promotes the gradual development of correct technical, tactical, and physical capacities of hockey players aged seven to 14.

A lot of coaching books present general instruction and drills to be applied to all players, regardless of their age. Horst Wein substitutes instruction by stimulation that is fitted to children’s specific characteristics. Instead of obliging kids to adapt to the game of hockey, the game’s difficulty and complexity has been adapted to their mental and physical development stage.

Hockey for Refugees A field hockey programme for refugee children in Pakistan is one of the exciting new projects that the FIH, in conjunction with Olympic Aid, is embarking on during hockey's International Year of the Youth.

Qualified coaches and equipment are being sent to Pakistan with the goal of establishing sustainable, community-owned hockey programs.