ROURKELA: With matches of FIH Hockey Pro League 2023-24 for women underway and those for men scheduled to kick off from Monday, hockey lovers of Sundargarh district seem to be gradually returning to watch international players in live action.
After co-hosting the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup (HWC) in January 2023 and FIH Pro League 2022-23 for men in March the same year, Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium (BMIHS) in Rourkela is hosting an international event after 11 months.
While the last edition of the Pro League matches was a runaway success, this edition has so far witnessed less spectators reportedly due to inadequate publicity and clashing of exam schedules of teenagers.
Organisers were hopeful that the number of spectators would be more during men’s matches, however during the women’s matches around 3,000-5,000 spectators were seen arriving in the stadium, which they say is quite a good number. They said around 14,000-15,000 people come to watch the matches women’s matches on February 12 and 14, which is very high than number witnessed at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
While the number of spectators increase during India matches at Kalinga Stadium, people at Rourkela seem to be very keen on watching matches even when they don’t feature India, they said.
Senior hockey coach Kalu Charan Chaudhary said holding international hockey events like these in frequent intervals is imperative to popularise hockey further.
Expecting more crowd during the upcoming men’s matches, Chaudhary said government has made special arrangements for the inmates and coaches of the hockey training centres at the grassroots from 16 blocks of Sundargarh along with nearby Jujumura and Bamra centres in adjacent Sambalpur district so as to provide them exposure and opportunities to learn high-quality techniques of the game.
The BMIHS is hosting 10 each matches of India, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, China and USA. While women’s matches are scheduled from February 12 to 18, the men’s matches would be held from February 19 to 25.
Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey thanked the BJD government for its support to hockey, adding both Bhubaneswar and Rourkela have quality infrastructure. “The FIH has been very supportive and Hockey India plans to organise at least one mega tournament of FIH annually at Rourkela along with Junior World Cup event to popularise hockey further,” he added.