CHENNAI: Since the second half of the previous decade, Odisha has been synonymous with hockey in India. Across men's and women's games, Odisha has been the primary sponsor of the national team since 2018. The state has even hosted the FIH Men's World Cup in 2023.
Odisha has been at the heart of Indian hockey, but somehow, hockey in Odisha has remained behind the curtains; until now. With three goals to Shilanand Lakra and a goal each to Rajat Akash Tirkey and Pratap Lakra made sure Odisha created history by bagging their first-ever title of the Hockey India Senior Men National Championship in Chennai.
After beating the formidable Haryana side, who made it to their third consecutive final at the senior nationals, Odisha's coach, Bijay Kumar Lakra, was one happy man at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium. "We said we would not give them any chance to play aerial shots, and we succeeded. Our quality was in attack and we stuck with that," Lakra told media after the final.
"We focused on marking the players and supporting each other in the field and it all came in handy in the final and we were able to score these many goals and win by this big a margin. This is the first win in the history of Odisha's hockey program. Our department has supported us well. We got a few video calls from back home wishing us well. Even our minister sent his best wishes. So we had this target for ourselves to win this for our state," Lakra added.
He was not the only Lakra in the side that won the title. There were five Lakras in the playing side and going by coach's words there were at least 14 members from the famed cradle of Indian hockey, Sundargarh.
"Though some of them are working and posted at different places, most of them grew up playing together," he said. Despite letting Haryana earn 10 penalty corners, Odisha's defense was strong enough as they only conceded one goal.
The coach explained the strategy behind that. "Today, we used both of our rushers in the match for penalties in Amit Kumar Toppo and Kerobin Lakra. They are the best runners on the team and I would say that is one of the reasons why we are successful today. Even our goalkeeper was in good form. We were also quite focused on maintaining the fitness level to last all quarters. I believe today's Hockey requires that level of fitness. The idea was no matter where the opposition players go, we planned to run and catch them and block their attempts to score."
It was evident from the final's play that this plan tied Haryana players down and did not allow them to score more than one goal. The goalkeeper for Odisha, Sahil Kumar Nayak too had a hand in the stellar show. "We knew we could have been under the pressure, but we talked about the need to keep calm. I said don't worry about saving the goals. I will do that for the team. Even when we had to defend those many penalties throughout the match, I think it helped us a great deal in clearance today," Nayak told this daily before lifting the trophy.
The 24-year-old, who drew inspiration from former India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, also spoke about the growth of the game in Odisha. "I don't think a lot of people knew about hockey before back home. We have witnessed a lot of growth. We are going on a better trajectory. We are climbing the ladder and the juniors are coming into the ranks and getting motivated to do better. Even today, we received a lot of well wishes from home. Now that we have won the championship, we are excited to see how it benefits our players back home," Nayak added.
Odisha had already created history by qualifying for the final of the senior national championship for the first time. No matter what, they would have remained proud of their campaign, but by winning their maiden title, this team has etched their names in history forever.