Bhubaneswar: As the whole of India basked in the reflected glory of Indian men’s hockey team’s gold winning show at the recently concluded Hangzhou Asian Games Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik was also drawing applause for his unstinted support to the game at the national level. There was general acknowledgement that but for his support the team would not have won its fourth gold in continental hockey.  

The focus, no doubt, is back on Naveen Patnaik government’s diligent nurturing of hockey. This has been possible not only because of the chief minister’s passion for the game but also his concern for the players whose talent cannot flower without monetary support. No wonder the Asian Games gold has the entire hockey fraternity applauding Patnaik for his solid backing of the game.

Odisha chief minister, who played hockey as the goalkeeper of his school team, came to the rescue of Indian hockey at a difficult time when Sahara, the official sponsor of the national team in 2017-18, backed out of sponsorship. Patnaik came forward to help Hockey India and signed a five-year sponsorship deal with it. Thus government of Odisha became the first-ever state government to sponsor hockey at the national level. It became the sponsor of all national teams — junior and senior, men and women. The deal was to expire this year but the chief minister has generously renewed it for another 10 years.

Patnaik’s generosity has been much talked about with most hockey lovers considering him lucky for the game. His  government’s sponsorship marked a turnaround in the fortunes of the Indian hockey team, both men and women. While the men’s team won a historic bronze at the 2020-21 Tokyo Games ending a 41-year medal drought in the sport at the Olympics, the women’s team entered its name in record books by reaching the Olympic semi-finals for the first time. The gold for men at Hangzhou and bronze for women is proof that Indian hockey’s winning streak continues.    

For many hockey has come to be associated with Odia pride as the game has pitched Odisha into international focus. With Patnaik’s sponsorship of the game drawing applause Odisha is also getting noticed by the international community. It is the  only state in the country to have hosted the Men’s Hockey World Cup twice consecutively in 2018 and 2023. This is proof that   the state, once considered backward, has the potential to organize big-time sporting events, especially international hockey tournaments. Boasting of state-of-the-art infrastructure for hockey Odisha  is today known as the new hockey capital of India.

Patnaik, whose passion for the game is well known, was quick to realize Odisha’s potential for nurturing hockey which is a craze among the tribal youth. This also provided him an excellent opportunity to create a new vote-bank among the state’s tribal people who account for nearly 23 percent of the state’s population.  

It is no coincidence that former India hockey captain Dilip Tirkey is a member of Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD)  which sent him to the Rajya Sabha in 2012. Tirkey, who hails from tribal-dominated Sundergarh district which is known as Odisha’s hockey nursery, is the incumbent president of Hockey India, the first player to achieve this distinction. He also happens to be the tribal face of ruling Biju Janata Dal, Odisha’s most successful regional party.     

Over the years Sundergarh has produced a number of international hockey players including  Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Ignace Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey, Peter Tirkey, Roshan Minz, Amit Rohidas and Birendra Lakra. Among women Deep Grace Ekka, Lilima Minz, Namita Toppo and Sunitat Lakra have done the district proud by representing India at the international level.

Hockey lovers are full of praise for chief minister’s support for the game. They openly admit that Pattnaik’s sponsorship of the game was primarily responsible for India winning the historic bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. Had Patnaik not come to the rescue of the game in 2018 the fate of the game in India would have been sealed as Hockey India was practically bankrupt at the time.

Most experts agree that official support for hockey in Odisha began during the chief ministership of Congress veteran J.B. Patnaik who was the first to realize that the game could help bring laurels to the state. Thanks to his efforts Panposh sports hostel for hockey in Sundergarh was set up in 1985. Known to have produced  world-class players including Dilip Tirkey, Lazarus Barla, Ignace Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey  this hostel is considered as the best nursery of hockey in Odisha.

But the real credit for changing the face of hockey not only in Odisha but also at the national level goes to incumbent chief minister Naveen Patnaik who has turned his state into the new home of Indian hockey. He has helped lift the standard of the game by providing world class infrastructure for hockey in the shape of  Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar and the newly constructed  Birsa Munda stadium at Rourkela. The latter is the biggest single-purpose hockey stadium in the country.

There is general consensus among experts that things have looked up on the hockey front because of Naveen Patnaik’s  active support for the game. While world class infrastructure for the game is being laid , efforts are on to ensure that Odisha organises as many world class tournaments as possible. It has already successfully organized two Men’s hockey world cup tournaments. The one hosted in January this year was special because the matches were played at two different venues in two different cities miles away from each other. For the first time chartered flights were used to ferry players from one venue to the other.

The focus of Patnaik government now is on providing facilities like Astro-turf to players. While around 17 such artificial turfs have been laid across Sundergarh district, Sambalpur, Jajpur and Chhatrapur also have one each of them. By the end of the year Odisha will have 35 of these artificial hockey pitches for players to practice and play matches on.

Hockey players cutting across generations agree that Odisha, especially Sundergarh district, has the potential to produce world class hockey players consistently and that chief minister Naveen Patnaik has been extremely magnanimous in adopting the game. They would want the chief minister to continue to support hockey and nurture local talent emerging from hockey nurseries like the Panposh sports hostel in Sundergarh.