Once again in India! Odisha to host 2023 Men’s Hockey World Cup for second consecutive time
Total Views |
Bhubaneshwar, November 28: It was officially announcement on Wednesday that Odisha will host the 2023 Men’s Hockey World Cup. After successfully hosting the 2018 men's hockey World Cup, India will once again stage the 2023 edition of the tournament. The tournament will be held from January 13 to 29, 2023.
It would the first time a country would be hosting successive editions of the premier tournament in the sport but the same city hosting it twice makes it even special. This time, however, Bhubaneswar (which hosted the 2018 WC) would share hosting rights with the Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium in Rourkela.
“World Cup is the pinnacle of tournaments in hockey for the FIH. It needs to have a certain standard, and, at present, only Bhubaneswar and Delhi have facilities up to that. Now Rourkela also has it, it only needs to be upgraded,” said IOA and FIH president Narinder Batra.
Although Rourkela already has two turfs, they would need to be upgraded to FIH standards and Odisha sports secretary Vishal Dev expressed confidence of completing all necessary work before time. “We have three years and we already have a stadium with 20,000 capacity that belongs to the Rourkela Steel Plant. We also have the Pamposh Sports Academy which will also be upgraded,” Dev said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also laid the foundation stone for 17 new turfs in each block of Sundergarh district, the hockey nursery of the state through a tie-up with Hockey India. The turfs, though, would use sand-dressed turfs, which do not need water and cost less.
“We hosted the 2018 World Cup and I would like to announce that the 2023 Hockey World Cup will again be held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Are you happy. I am happy,” Patnaik said while addressing the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium in a brief ceremony.
The state government also announced the setting up of a permanent High Performance Centre at the Kalinga Stadium, catering to hockey and athletics and hosting the Abhinav Bindra Targeted Performing Centre. Currently, the ABTP and Naval Tata Hockey Academy operate out of the main hockey stadium building. “It would be spread over 1.20 lakh sqmt and have accommodation facilities also for all the players and staff. We have plans for 10 HPCs, the others including for swimming and shooting etc would come up outside,” Dev said.