100 Years On: Black Sticks Men Host India in Centenary Series at Lloyd Elsmore
A hundred years is a long time in hockey. Next week, New Zealand and India mark it properly.
The Black Sticks men host India in a three-match invitational series — the Slumberzone Cup — at Lloyd Elsmore Park in Auckland on 19, 21 and 22 November, a hundred years since India’s first hockey tour to New Zealand in 1926. Three games, one ground, and a century of history between the two sides.
The series sits right in the middle of New Zealand’s new Premier Hockey League season. The PHL takes a two-week break after its opening weekend so the Black Sticks players can join the national side, and the league resumes with rounds two and three at North Harbour on 28 and 29 November. PHL players are expected to feature in the series, which is the whole point of lining the league up this way.
India arrive as Asian champions. They won the Asian Champions Trophy in Mohali last week, beating Japan 4-1 in the final for a sixth title and a third in a row, and they did it without losing a game. Harmanpreet Singh finished as the tournament’s top scorer with ten goals. That’s the side New Zealand are welcoming to Auckland.
The Black Sticks, for their part, have a new domestic league to build around and a home series against the best team in Asia to measure themselves against. The PHL’s first weekend gave a glimpse of the depth coming through, with 32 Black Sticks and 11 international players involved in the competition, and the Alpiners winning both their openers in Hawke’s Bay.
For our money, this is the kind of series that matters more than it looks on paper. India get a proper test away from home before their next big assignment, New Zealand get three games against a side that has just won everything in Asia, and the centenary gives it a weight that a normal November series wouldn’t have. A hundred years since 1926, and the two teams are still meeting in Auckland. That’s worth watching.
