The 16th edition of the FIH Hockey World Cup will kick off this weekend in Belgium and the Netherlands. Running from August 15 to 30, the quadrennial tournament will be jointly hosted by the two nations across two venues — the Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre, Belgium, and the Wagener Hockey Stadium in Amstelveen, the Netherlands.

The men’s and women’s competition will feature 16 teams, each divided into four pools of four. Co-hosts Belgium are grouped with defending men’s champions Germany, while the Netherlands will look to defend their women’s crown on home turf. India will face England across both competitions and Pakistan in the men’s draw.

Pool A: Argentina, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand.

Pool A: Australia, Chile, Japan, Netherlands.

The World Cup is split into three separate stages.

The sixteen teams will be split into four pools (A, B, C, D) of four teams each. They will play three matches each in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool will qualify for the second pool stage; the bottom two teams will move to the new “classification stage”.

The traditional quarterfinals have been replaced by a second, crossover pool stage. The top two teams from pools A, B, C and D will be sorted into two new pools (E and F) of four teams each.

The competition will assume a traditional knockout format. The four teams will play in the semifinals; the winners will play the Final for gold, while the defeated semifinalists will contest the bronze medal match.

Both the men’s and women’s teams have been drawn in Pool D of their respective competitions.

August 15. India vs Wales (4:30 PM IST)

August 16. China vs India (4:30 PM IST)

All matches will be broadcast in India on Star Sports and streamed on JioHotstar. Globally, matches are available on Watch Hockey, subject to regional broadcast restrictions.