Once again Indian cricket has caused hockey to suffer as International Hockey Federation (IHF) has been forced to advance the 2010 World Cup by a week from its original schedule to avert its clash with the cash rich Indian Premier League in next year.

IHF spokesperson stated that IHF has decided to start the Hero Honda FIH World Cup 2010 in New Delhi one week earlier than the original schedule. He added that this rescheduling of 2010 Hockey World Cup would help them to get better worldwide promotion of this mega event.

Now, 2010 Hockey World will be held in New Delhi from February 28 to March 13 2010 while IPL-3 will kick off from March 12. 12 teams from different countries will participate in the 2010 Hockey World Cup at the National Stadium in New Delhi.

Four teams including Canada, Korea, South Africa and India have already qualified for the World Cup while rest of the spots will be filled after conclusion of the ongoing qualifying process of the teams in November.