As the curtains came down on the Tokyo Olympics, the world of sports had many reasons to smile. Notwithstanding the challenges posed by COVID-19, the worst pandemic in a century, the planet’s biggest sporting event concluded rather successfully. Credit is due as much to Japan as it is to the global sporting community for its resilience.
India, too, had reasons to cheer. It won seven medals, including one gold in field and track, which is a first for the country. This was the highest medal haul for India. The medal tally of seven, critics would say, dwarfs in comparison to what many countries with much smaller populations and economic resources have won. Nevertheless, coming as it did five years after a lacklustre performance at the Rio Olympics, the show in Tokyo surely brings some hope for India.
A sport where India saw great zeal and success was hockey. An Olympic medal in hockey had eluded India for 41 years. The last time India won a medal was in 1980 (gold in men’s hockey). The wait has been rather painful given that India won as many as eight gold medals in hockey through the first eight decades of its participation in the Olympics.
Breaking the jinx
So, how did India finally break the jinx? The men’s team won a bronze medal and the women’s team put up a spirited show, missing a medal by a whisker. Was it good luck at play? Or was it something else? That’s where Odisha comes into the picture.
Indian hockey’s slide at the Olympics coincided with a switch to a new format, from dirt to AstroTurf. Indian players found playing on AstroTurf challenging because there weren’t many such turfs available for practice at home. Sports authorities didn’t do enough to solve this problem. It was only in 2017 that a serious attempt was made when the Naveen Patnaik government became the principal sponsor of the Indian national hockey teams. The teams were earlier sponsored by Sahara India and the deal ended prematurely. This was the first time a State government was sponsoring a national team. The move gave not only a new lease of life to hockey but a patron too, who could give it what it deserved.
Mr. Patnaik, an avid lover of the sport, had already got his government to undertake a massive renovation of the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, to host the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup. In fact, Odisha had been preparing the ground since 2013, when it began promoting the Hockey India League and founded a team called the Kalinga Lancers. It has hosted a number of national and international tournaments. Having decided to bankroll the Indian hockey team, Mr. Patnaik’s next task was to ensure that the Hockey World Cup was held on a scale grand enough to capture the nation’s imagination.
It was just a matter of time before Bhubaneswar became a sporting hub. The city today boasts of 10 High Performance Centres for sports ranging from hockey and football to athletics, shooting, weightlifting, badminton, etc. Each High Performance Centre is equipped with world-class coaches and state-of-the-art training facilities and is a public-private partnership involving the Odisha government, a corporate sponsor, and an academy manager. In the case of hockey and athletics, the corporate sponsors – the Tata Group and Reliance Industries, respectively – also double up as managers of the training academies.
Moment of reckoning
The successful hosting of the Men’s Hockey World Cup in 2018 not only brought a moment of reckoning for sports in Odisha but also marked the beginning of a new era for Indian hockey. On August 13, 2019, the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey Academy, the first High Performance Centre of its kind in the State, was launched as an initiative by the Odisha government in partnership with the Tata Group (Tata Steel and Tata Trusts). The Tata Group has always supported the development of sports in the country. The Odisha Naval Tata Hockey Academy has a technical tie-up with legendary Dutch drag flicker Floris Jan Bovelander. It caters to the best of talent (both boys and girls) under the age of 18 years from across the State. A small number of trainees is also drafted in from other parts of the country.
The High Performance Centre, which is housed inside the sprawling Kalinga Stadium, offers excellent infrastructure including a gymnasium, a target performance centre and a swimming complex — everything that a modern-day athlete needs. Most importantly, through its Athlete Management System, it provides exposure to the different ways in which technology can be used. Top coaches, strength trainers, video analysts, mental trainers, nutritionists and educationists all work in tandem to ensure that the sporting talent get the best of grooming. The High Performance Centre also runs 12 grassroot centres across four districts — Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Dhenkanal — catering to more than 2,600 trainees. The first Odisha Naval Tata Hockey Grassroot League was held this year. Its aim is to hone and promote talent at the regional development centres before the players walk into the High Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar.
The district of Sundargarh remains the epicentre, having produced the bulk of hockey players from Odisha including great players like former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey and four members of the teams that went to Tokyo: Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas, Deep Grace Ekka and Namita Toppo. Plans are afoot to provide AstroTurfs in each of the 17 blocks of Sundargarh. A new state-of-the-art hockey stadium with a capacity to seat 20,000 is getting ready in Rourkela, Sundargarh’s main city, to co-host the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 alongside the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
None of this would have been possible without the steadfast support and encouragement of Chief Minister Patnaik, who in 2017 took a bet that few were willing to take – to be a patron of Indian hockey. Five years on, that bet seems to be paying off handsomely not just for Odisha but for the nation as well.
Rajiv Seth is Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre