The Kookaburras, who won their first ever Olympic gold medal at Athens in August, withdrew from the annual six-nation tournament due to security concerns based on a travel advisory from the Australian government.

It dashed hopes of a mouth-watering rematch of the Olympic final which Australia won 2-1 through Jamie Dwyer's golden goal to deny the Netherlands their third consecutive gold medal.

The Olympic defeat rankles the Dutch so much that coach Terry Walsh pulled out star players like Teun de Nooijer and captain Jeroen Delmee from European league commitments to make the trip to Pakistan in a bid to reassert supremacy.

The Dutch, unarguably the finest team in modern hockey over the last decade, have won five of the last eight Champions Trophy titles including the 2002 and 2003 editions of a tournament described by Pakistan coach Roelant Oltmans as "tougher than the Olympics or World Cup."

Other teams in the fray at the 70,000-seater National Hockey Stadium here will be Germany, Spain, New Zealand, Pakistan and India, who secured a back-door entry after Australia pulled out.

SCHEDULE
Dec 4 : New Zealand v The Netherlands, India v Spain, Pakistan v Germany
Dec 5 : The Netherlands v India, Germany v Spain, New Zealand v Pakistan
Dec 6 : Rest day
Dec 7 : Spain v New Zealand, Pakistan v The Netherlands, India v Germany
Dec 8 : The Netherlands v Spain, Germany v New Zealand, Pakistan v India
Dec 9 : Rest day
Dec 10 : Spain v Pakistan, New Zealand v India, The Netherlands v Germany
Dec 11 : Rest day
Dec 12 : Final