Debabrata Mohanty, Bhubaneswar
The Odisha authorities will award ₹1 crore every to members of the Indian males’s hockey crew if it wins the fifteenth World Cup starting subsequent week in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made the announcement shortly after he inaugurated the Birsa Munda hockey stadium in Rourkela the place 20 of the 44 matches will likely be performed within the match between January 13 and 29.
India have gained the lads’s World Cup as soon as in 1975 when the crew led by Ajit Pal Singh beat Pakistan 2-1 within the ultimate held in Kuala Lumpur. Patnaik who met the India crew, stated the Birsa Munda stadium could be instrumental in making India a hockey powerhouse. “It’s going to encourage many budding gamers of the nation and the world. The stadium could be greatest present of Odisha to the nation,” he stated after inaugurating the ₹261-crore stadium that may maintain 20,000 spectators.
The stadium, named after freedom fighter Birsa Munda and constructed on 15 acres of land, will host India’s first match, in opposition to Spain on January 13. FIH, the governing physique for worldwide hockey, had set a situation that two host cities have to be made obtainable for the World Cup. Following this, Patnaik sanctioned the development of a model new hockey stadium in Rourkela in February 2021.
Whereas the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and ultimate will likely be performed on the Kalinga Stadium, classification matches will likely be performed at Birsa Munda Stadium.
Patnaik additionally inaugurated World Cup Village, which has 225 rooms, on the stadium advanced. It’s going to home the gamers and groups’ assist employees. Some distinctive options of the stadium embody a connecting tunnel between the dressing room and the adjoining follow pitch, a separate health centre, a swimming pool.
That is the fourth time India is internet hosting the lads’s World Cup. The 1982 version was held in Mumbai whereas New Delhi hosted it in 2010. The 14th version was held in Bhubaneswar in 2018.