15 years in the making

(FORMER INDIA CAPTAIN) : As Bhubaneswar gets ready to organise the FIH World Cup, my mind goes back to a meeting I had with the honourable Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during a youth fest in 2003. That turned out to be one of the most memorable meetings of my life. I had earlier met Patnaik several times but that particular meeting was special. At the time, I was leading the Indian hockey team while Patnaik was leading the state. I was nervous, thinking about how to talk to him.

With a lot of fear, I asked him: “Sir, how about setting up an astroturf in the state capital?” His reply astonished me. He told me that if I were to make a proposal and submit it, we would soon have India’s best turf in Bhubaneswar.Within a couple of weeks, the proposal was prepared. The then sports director RN Das put in special effort to set up a world class turf as well as a gallery. Looking back, I believe that meeting was the first step towards making Odisha’s state capital, the sports capital of the country.

The construction of a Hockey Stadium started in a few months. Although it took a few years to complete, it had quite the impact. We managed to complete it by the end of 2012 and laid down India’s first Olympic standard pink and blue coloured turf in 2013. Apart from constructing a world class stadium, we also opened a sports hostel for emerging hockey stars in Bhubaneswar. 

Although we had built a great stadium, hosting a marquee event was a ch­a­llenge for us. At that time, Hockey Ind­i­a came up with the idea of a new do­­m­estic tournament in which foreign players participated. The Hockey India League, the franchise-based competition that started in 2013, has had a revolutionary impact on Indian Hockey. It seems to have captured the imagination of modern fans and has attracted the best players from around the world. I am convinced the HIL will continue to be a permanent feature of the global hockey calendar. 

With support from Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), we created our own Bhubaneswar-based HIL franchise ‘Kalinga Lancers’. For the first time, the Kalinga Stadium hosted world-class hockey during late 2013 and early 2014. The team’s performance in the tournament was not the best but support from fans was a high point. Thousands of spectators thronged the galleries to cheer players on, despite the home team’s average performance.

While I never had any doubt that the HIL would be popular, I did not expect the tournament to take off so quickly. I also did not expect the standard of hockey to be so high. The matches in HIL are played with as much intensity as international hockey and the level is very close to the highest international standard. Players turning up for the franchises always give their best and the fans appreciate this. Of course, th­ey also enjoy seeing the world’s best pl­a­yers in action alongside the best of domestic talent. We have seen more th­an 10 players from Odisha get the chance to play for different franchises including the Lancers. In that sense, the Kalinga stadium has proved to be a boon for local players to nurture their talent, playing with and against the world’s best in HIL. 

Following the successful hosting of HIL matches, we were awarded a mega event in 2014. It was the Champions Trophy in which the top eight teams in the world participated. It was a challe­nge for the state government to host the event because Odisha had never before hosted such a big event. The government was focused on making it a grand event and succeeded in doing so, under the leadership of CM Patnaik. It was probably after this tournament that Bhubaneswar began being thought of as one of the hubs of Indian hockey.

For the next three years, we hosted many international and domestic tournaments in Bhubaneswar, including a bilateral series between India and Japan, HIL matches as well as inter-university and departmental games. Every time, the Bhubaneswar crowd proved that there were few better when it came to cheering on hockey. 

The performance of Lancers has also improved over the years, perhaps due to the unwavering support of the fans. After lacklustre performances in the first two seasons, the team fought back in 2016 and finished runners-up. Then, in 2017, they became HIL champions.After witnessing the support the game was getting both from fans and from the government, Hockey India and the International Hockey Federation (FIH) came up with a plan to host the Hockey World League in 2017 and the World Cup in 2018, in Bhubaneswar. How could the state government miss such an opportunity to showcase its potential to the world? Hosting such a world-class event is a matter of pride, not only for the state but also for the nation. The state government proved its readiness by successfully hosting the HWL, where the top eight teams fought for glory in December 2017.

Now the stage is set for the World Cup. The government is leaving no stone unturned to make it a gala event. A nation-wide publicity campaign, ‘Heartbeats for Hockey’, has been launched to showcase Bhubaneswar as a sporting venue and Odisha as a tourist destination. Advertisements were put up on buses in London, Munich and Sydney with the tagline ‘Odisha by morning, hockey by evening’. 

I have played three World Cup but I bet this would the best one yet in terms of fan-following and hospitality. Tickets for India matches have already been sold out. Tickets for all the knockout games are on the verge of being sold out. I can remember the days when we were insisting that a hockey stadium be built in Bhubaneswar.

Some critics were questioning why we were constructing such a huge stadium and asking who plays or watches hockey here. Back then, the stadium could only hold 8000 people. But now, with the capacity increased to more than double the original, people still can’t get tickets. I get hundreds of calls from people asking for match passes. What more vindication do we need for our decision to invest in hockey, all those years ago?