Sundergarh district in Odisha has turn into the ‘Cradle of Indian Hockey’

The exceptional efficiency of the Indian Hockey Team, each women and men contingent, within the Tokyo Olympics 2020 has reignited a ardour for the nationwide sport within the minds of Indians. The entry of each males’s and ladies’s hockey groups into the Olympics semifinals has been an amazing feeling for many of the Indians because it comes after a hiatus of greater than 4 a long time.
Well, the success of India’s hockey after a long time of continued failure is an thrilling story in itself. Half a century in the past, Indians had been the world champion and dominated the world hockey scene, profitable as many as eight gold medals, the final one coming within the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Since then, the sport had misplaced a lot of its recognition within the nation owing to a number of causes, one being the shortage of assist of the Indian Hockey workforce. With dwindling assist for the game, the gamers misplaced the motivation to win main titles. As years glided by, nothing substantial was achieved.
However, the entry of the Odisha authorities to assist the game modified the story of hockey without end. The Odisha government-led by Naveen Patnaik, took an curiosity in reviving the nation’s nationwide sport and gave the sport a much-needed push to make the nation a champion facet because it was 4 a long time in the past. When no one within the nation confirmed any ardour or curiosity to assist its nationwide sport, together with Hockey India, it was the Odisha government-led by Naveen Patnaik that stepped in to avoid wasting the game.
Indian Hockey’s success is led by the Odisha authorities
In 2018, the Sahara Group abruptly ended its sponsorship take care of Hockey India. It was presupposed to run till 2021, however the troubles confronted by the corporate meant that it might now not sponsor the workforce. After Sahara’s exit, the Odisha authorities took over the mantle of sponsorship of the Indian nationwide hockey groups each within the junior and senior ranges. The Odisha authorities invested round Rs.150 crore to assist the nationwide sport and stepped in to sponsor the boys’s and ladies’s hockey groups over the following 5 years.
This was the primary time {that a} state authorities had are available in to sponsor a nationwide sporting workforce. 
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had then remembered how Hockey was an integral a part of Odisha’s tribal and in addition a lifestyle in his state’s tribal area, including that youngsters realized to stroll with hockey sticks in Odisha.
A couple of months later, the Odisha authorities joined palms with the Tata group to arrange the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High-Performance Centre (HPC) at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The thought was to groom the longer term sporting abilities in hockey and produce world-class sportspersons.
In 2017, the Odisha authorities additionally sponsored the Kalinga Lancers membership that received the Hockey India League in January. A yr later, Odisha additionally hosted Hockey World League in December 2018 on the Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium. The following yr, the Naveen Patnaik-led authorities additionally hosted FIH Men’s Series Finals and Olympic Hockey Qualifiers 2019 and even the FIH Pro League in 2020.
In 2023, Bhubaneswar and Rourkela will once more host the World Cup Hockey for Men for the second time. In Rourkela of Sundergarh district, the Patnaik authorities is constructing the nation’s greatest hockey stadium with a seating capability for 20,000 spectators that shall be named after tribal chief Birsa Munda. To additional strengthen the hockey ecosystem in Sundergarh, Odisha can also be planning to put an artificial hockey turf in every of the 17 blocks of the district.
Sundegarh – the Hockey Capital of India
In the previous few years, Odisha has emerged as the brand new dwelling of Indian hockey, with the Sundergarh area as its epicentre. Located within the heartland of Maoist Red-corridor – Sundergarh has turn into the ‘Cradle of Indian Hockey’. The resource-rich area has produced 5 nationwide captains of the Indian hockey workforce and over 60 worldwide gamers.
It is believed that hockey was launched in Sundergarh by the European missionaries who got here to the tribal area within the 1860s. The European missionaries typically organised hockey matches as a part of their extracurricular actions. Thus, for hundreds of years now, hockey has turn into an integral a part of the lifetime of tribals within the Chotanagpur Plateau, an space that features southern Jharkhand, the Sundergarh area of Odisha and Jashipur of Chhattisgarh.
#DidYouKnow #HockeyIndia #TokyoOlympics 1/ Odisha’s Sundergarh district is called the ‘Cradle of Indian Hockey’ – it has produced 5 nationwide captains and over 60 worldwide gamers. pic.twitter.com/lJFPbvtDCW— The Better India (@thebetterindia) August 3, 2021
Some consider that the pure soil and rock within the limestone belt of Chotanagour plateau, with its abundance in calcium share, strengthens the bones of the folks on this space and makes them energetic, making them excellent for taking part in hockey.
The sport is now a cultural identification for numerous tribes reminiscent of Orams, the Kharia, the Munda and the Bhuniya communities. Even aged folks in these tribal villages will be seen enjoying hockey. The sport launched by Christian missionaries over centuries in the past has now seeped into their tradition.
Interestingly, there are a lot of native customs and traditions connected to the game. For instance, the “Prem Bhoj” occasions are conventional celebrations wherein the household of the groom contests in opposition to the workforce from the bride facet in a hockey event. The winner takes dwelling a Khasi (goat), hen or eggs as a prize. The Goat Cup or the Khasi Cup has turn into a distinguished cultural identification of tribes in Odisha not too long ago.
After Sansarpur in Jalandhar, Punjab, Sundergarh is turning into a very powerful centre of Indian hockey these days. It has produced 5 nationwide workforce captains — Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey within the males’s workforce and Subhadra Pradhan and Jyoti Sunita Kulu within the ladies’s workforce. In addition, it has additionally produced greater than 60 worldwide hockey gamers, together with Olympians Lazarus Barla, William Xalco, Birendra Lakra and Sunita Lakra. 
Three gamers from Sundergarh – one ladies hockey participant (Deep Grace Ekka) and two males gamers (Amit Rohidas and Birendra Lakra) have made it to the Tokyo Olympics 2021.
3/ It has additionally produced greater than 60 worldwide hockey gamers together with Olympians Lazarus Barla, William Xalco, Birendra Lakra and Sunita Lakra.— The Better India (@thebetterindia) August 3, 2021
Sundergarh now has three hockey academies which features a sports activities hostel in Panposh, Rourkela, constructed within the yr 1984 that gives coaching for proficient kids. Later, two coaching centres and hostels had been developed at Sundergarh by the Sports Authority of India and the Odisha authorities that helped gamers take part within the nationwide championships.
These coaching centres and hostels of Sundergarh have produced greater than 12,000 nationwide hockey gamers, with round 10,000 of them incomes their livelihoods by way of sports activities quota authorities jobs in Railways, PSUs, banks, Odisha police division and a few even within the armed forces.