All You Want to Know About Women’s Hockey World Cup

• The inaugural Women’s Hockey World Cup was played at Mandelieu, France in March 1974

• India have featured in seven Women’s Hockey World Cups so far (1974, 1978, 1983, 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2018)

• Netherlands and Spain played the first game of the inaugural Women’s Hockey World Cup on March 17, 1974, where the Dutch won 2-0

• Only two occasions when the finals of the Women’s Hockey World Cup went into a shootout – West Germany Beat Netherlands 3-1 (1-1) in the 1981 edition and Argentina beat Netherlands 4-3 (1-1) in the 2002 edition

• Netherlands have won the Women’s Hockey World Cup on most occasions – eight times

• Four nations have won the Women’s Hockey World Cup as host nations – Germany (1976), Netherlands (1986), Argentina (2010) & Netherlands (2014)

• Canada stunned everyone when they held Australia 0-0 in regulation time and went on to win on penalties 8-5 in the semifinals of the 1983 Women’s Hockey World Cup at Kuala Lumpur and reached the final where they lost 2-4 to the Dutch in the final

• Rupa Saina captained the Indian women’s hockey team at the 1978 World Cup at Madrid

• Netherlands beating Ireland 6-0 in the final of the 2018 edition is the biggest victory margin in the Women’s Hockey World Cup

• India’s best-ever showing at the Women’s Hockey World Cup is a 4th place finish in the inaugural 1974 edition

• Soviet Union sprang a surprise when they reached the semifinal of the 1981 Women’s Hockey World Cup where they lost to the Netherlands 3-7

• Australia made their debut in the Women’s Hockey World Cup in the 1981 edition and did not play in the first three editions (1974, 1976, 1978)

• India did not play in the Women’s Hockey World Cup for 15 years – after playing in the 1983 edition they next featured in the 1998 edition

• The best performance by any Asian nation is China and South Korea finishing third in the 1990 and 2002 editions at Sydney and Perth respectively

• Netherlands, Germany & Argentina have featured in all Women’s Hockey World Cups

• Ajinder Kaur captained India at the inaugural 1974 Women’s Hockey World Cup held at France

• Selma D’Silva captained the Indian women’s hockey team at the 1983 World Cup at Kuala Lumpur

• No team from Asia have won the Women’s Hockey World Cup so far

• India finished last at the 1998 Women’s Hockey World Cup at Utrecht

• Netherlands’ 12-1 win vs Italy in the 2018 edition is the biggest winning margin in the Women’s Hockey World Cups

• A total of 29 countries have featured in the Women’s Hockey World Cup across all fourteen editions

• Nigeria (1976 & 1978) and Russia (1994 & 2002) have finished in the Women’s Hockey World Cup twice

• Netherlands have hosted the Women’s Hockey World Cup most times – thrice (1986, 1998 & 2014)

• Madrid is the only city to host the Women’s Hockey World Cup twice (1976 & 2006)

• India’s 1-7 defeat to the Netherlands in the 2010 edition is their biggest defeat in the Women’s Hockey World Cup

• Netherlands’ 6-0 win over Belgium in the 1978 edition is the biggest semifinal win in the Women’s Hockey World Cup

• Sandeep Kaur captained the Indian women’s hockey team at the 1998 World Cup at Utrecht

• Canada after their stunning runners-up finish in the 1983 Women’s Hockey World Cup, won a bronze in the 1986 edition at Amstelveen

• 1983 Women’s Hockey World Cup was the only occasion when it was hosted in Asia – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• India have scored 44 goals in six most goals in any single Women’s Hockey World Cup appearances

• Netherlands have scored most goals in the Women’s Hockey World Cup – 291 Goals

• Rani Rampal scored 7 Goals at the 2010 Rosario World Cup

• Three nations have played in the Women’s Hockey World Cup only once – Czechoslovakia (1978), Wales (1983) and Ukraine (2002)

• India stunned eventual 1974 champions Netherlands 1-0 in the league phase – Baljeet Bhatti was the goal-scorer for India

• South Africa finishing 7th at the 1998 edition is the best performance by any African nation at the Women’s Hockey World Cup

• Surinder Kaur captained the Indian women’s hockey team at the 2010 World Cup at Rosario

• Nigeria have conceded most goals in any single Women’s Hockey World Cup – 30 Goals in the 1976 edition

• Netherlands have been runners-up at the Women’s Hockey World Cup most times – four times (1981, 1998, 2002 & 2010)

• The top goal-scorers at last World Cups (2018, 2014, 2010 and 2006) were from the Netherlands (Kitty van Male, Maartje Paumen & Sylvia Karres)

• India’s 4-1 win vs Spain in the 1974 edition is their biggest win in the Women’s Hockey World Cup

• Netherlands have scored most goals in any single Women;s Hockey World Cup – 35 Goals in the 2018 edition

• Jyoti Sunita Kullu captained the Indian women’s hockey team at the 2006 World Cup at Madrid

• Celebrated Australian player Alyson Annan and former coach of the Netherlands and current China coach, was the top goal-scorer (8 Goals) at the 1998 Utrecht World Cup

• Paumen Maartje of Netherlands is the only player to be the top goal-scorer at consecutive Worlds Cups (12 Goals and 7 Goals in 2010 & 2014 editions)