Rourkela stadium to host four national championships to give international feel to youngsters

The championships are being organised to give the domestic players a feel of the state-of-the-art facility, which hosted the men’s World Cup last month.

FILE PHOTO: Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium illuminates during an FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 match on January 27, 2023.  | Photo Credit: ANI

Four age-group national hockey championships will be organised at the newly-built Birsa Munda Stadium here this year to give the domestic players a feel of the state-of-the-art facility, which hosted the men’s World Cup jointly with Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar last month.

The four tournaments are the Junior Women National Championship (April 13-23), Junior Men National Championship (April 28-May 8), Sub-junior Women National Championship (May 13-23) and Sub-junior Men National Championship (May 28-June 7).

The Senior Men National Championship 2023, meanwhile, will be held in Madurai, Tamil Nadu from May 3 to 14.

“We have taken a major step by signing a multi-year contract with the FanCode which has over 50 million users to show all the National Championship matches live in India and the Indian sub-continent,” said Hockey India president and former captain Dilip Tirkey.

“We also want to introduce video referral at the domestic level so that players understand the process early in their careers. Our aim is to provide these budding stars the same feel of playing an international match in India,” he added.

From this year, starting with the Senior Women’s National Championship scheduled to begin on February 15 in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, each venue will have a three-camera setup to capture and relay the action live and the matches will be held on the same lines as international matches with “Player of The Match” award being given away for every match.

Hockey India secretary-general Bholanath Singh said, “This is the first time HI has taken these kinds of measures to lift the profile of the National Championships and give it a uniform look and feel.

“All the costs for these new initiatives will be borne by Hockey India and we will not burden our host member unit with these extra costs. The cash award for ‘Player of the Match’ will also be provided by the federation.” The umpires officiating the national championships will be provided radios for on-field communication and the federation is also working on introducing video referral in the nationals.