Once it chronicled Mir Ranjan Negi’s epic fall from grace, Dhanraj Pillay’s artistic spadework and Sandeep Singh’s muscular drag-flicks, but through the past decade, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium’s concrete pillars and ill-maintained dusty bucket seats perhaps were resigned to the fact that its glory days as epicentre of Indian hockey were a thing of past.
Having spent 10 years without a single international match after Odisha government’s seminal decision to help Indian hockey find its home in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, the National Stadium in the Capital gets a chance to host two ‘Tests’ against Germany on October 23 and 24 and showcase that all is not lost when it comes to Delhi being the ‘Hockey Hub’ as it used to be till the early part of the new millennium.
Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey is hoping for a good turnout, considering hockey’s growing popularity after two consecutive Olympic bronze medals.
“Earlier domestic tournaments used to be held in Delhi in a very spectacular manner. I, too, made my international debut in Delhi through the Indira Gandhi Gold Cup in 1995. A large number of spectators used to come here, and we also want that the glory of hockey to return to Delhi,” Tirkey told PTI Bhasha.
“After the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, the popularity of hockey has increased manifold, and now the stadium will be waiting for the spectators,” said the legendary former defender.
The last international match played here was the 2014 Hero World League Final. Inter-departmental hockey of institutions has been held here occasionally.
“I was an official here during the 2010 World Cup, and people from all over the country came here to watch the match. It was a different atmosphere,” said Ajay Kumar Bansal, former coach of the Indian junior and women’s hockey team and ex-administrator of the National Stadium.
“Hockey was being played in Odisha for the last few years, due to which the graph of the game went up there. On the contrary, due to the absence of hockey in Delhi, it went down. The youth did not see any big hockey tournament here, so automatically, their interest decreased,” he said.
“Apart from this, due to lack of tournaments, the maintenance of the stadium is also affected. I want that from next time four or five more venues, including Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana, should be included in the Hockey India League.”
India’s World Cup-winning former captain Ajitpal Singh believes that matches with big teams should be played in all the pockets of hockey in India.
“An international match is happening in Delhi after many years. Earlier, many ‘Test’ matches used to be held at the Shivaji Stadium. I think it is important to have matches and tournaments across the country, rather than centralizing them,’’ the former skipper said.
“There are many pockets of hockey in India like many excellent players have emerged from Punjab, Haryana, UP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Hockey is very popular in Odisha and Jharkhand, but it is important to organize big matches in other states as well,” he added.
Giving details of the preparations, officials of Dhyanchand Stadium said that the astroturf on the main pitch and practice pitches was going on with German machines for a week, and it has been completed. Every year Rs 30 lakh is spent on the maintenance of both turfs.
They said that the spectator galleries, change rooms, dressing rooms, and the entire complex have been cleaned. They also noted that there is no need for an upgrade because this is a world-class stadium in which the World Cup and Commonwealth Games have been organized.
The stadium also houses a Hockey Academy of the National Center of Excellence of the Sports Authority of India in which regular practice takes place. Apart from this, under the ‘Come and Play’ scheme of SAI, some children come and play hockey, and are very excited about these matches.
When India defeated arch-rival Pakistan in the World Cup 2010 and the Commonwealth Games in the same year on this ground, a flood of emotions had overflowed in the packed stadium.
The National Stadium (formerly known as Irwin Amphitheatre), gifted to Delhi by the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, witnessed the first Asian Games in 1951, and the players shed tears after losing to Pakistan in the hockey final of the 1982 Asian Games.
On this same ground, Australia hammered the host India in the 2010 Commonwealth Games finals 8-0, one of the worst-ever defeats for the country.
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