Field Hockey is one of the top 10 most popular sports in the world and it has been part of Olympics since 1908 and became regular fixture in the Olympics after 1928. But the world championship of field hockey started back in 1971 with first Hockey world cup which took place in Spain. Pakistan won the first ever Hockey World Cup and they would go on to win three more in 1978, 1982 and 1994 becoming the most successful team in hockey world cup history.
Today we take a look at past winners, runnersup in hockey world cup history. So far 13 world cup has been taken place where Pakistan won 4 while Australia and Holland have won 3 each and Germany won twice in 2002 and 2006.
| YEAR | WINNERS | RUNNERS-UP | HOSTS |
| 1971 |  Pakistan |
Spain | Spain |
| 1973 |  Netherlands |
India | Netherlands |
| 1975 |  India |
Pakistan | Malaysia |
| 1978 | Pakistan |
Netherlands | Argentina |
| 1982 | Pakistan |
Germany | India |
| 1986 |  Australia |
England | England |
| 1990 | Netherlands |
Pakistan | Pakistan |
| 1994 | Pakistan |
Netherlands | Australia |
| 1998 | Netherlands |
Spain | Netherlands |
| 2002 |  Germany |
Australia | Malaysia |
| 2006 | Germany |
Australia | Germany |
| 2010 | Australia |
Germany | India |
| 2014 |  Australia |
Netherlands | Netherlands |
So far Pakistan has been the most successful team in Hockey world cup history winning the competition for record 4 times and finishing runners-up on two separate occassions. Australia and Netherlands has both won the competition 3 times each and Netherlands has lost three world cup finals while Australia lost twice.
Fall from grace: Pakistan who dominated the world hockey from 1970’s to 1990’s has kind of fallen behind in recent couple of years. Since winning 1994 world cup Pakistan has never finished in top 4 in any of the world cups from 1998 to 2014. The lowest point of Pakistan hockey came in 2014 world cup when the failed to qualify after finishing 12th in 2010 world cup.