Delving into the success of hockey infrastructure planning, corporate and foreign tie-ups for high performance center setup to groom young athletes along with the grassroots programmes in Odisha.
Symbolic events symbolize awareness
The International Yoga Day is marked on 23rd June each year where the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights yoga as a means to improve health in its Global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030: more active people for a healthier world. On the other hand, the Fit India Movement involved citizens to imbibe fun, easy and inexpensive ways to remain fit thereby inducing a behavioral change – from sedentary lifestyle to a physically active way of day-to-day living. We have seen active engagement from ministers, sportspersons and celebrities sharing 1 minute challenge videos to motivate, nominating ahead to set a trend. Such single stand-off events definitely help raise awareness on fitness and the value of sports in life especially for a healthy wellbeing. But, how do we move beyond to build the right infrastructure to groom athletes and thereby develop a sustainable sports model to see India become a future sporting powerhouse of the world?
Here’s looking at one such success in the sports landscape of India, of that of Odisha in hockey, delving into the infrastructure planning right from being chalked in election manifestos to its on ground realization, setting up HPCs and grassroot programmes with corporate and foreign academy tie-ups to develop raw talent and bringing in ex-players to develop a model that can be adopted by other sports and states.
Sporty state of affairs
The Odisha model is pillared on the Khelo India (Play India) programme that taps-in early stage raw potential serving as the national strategy for development of sports and athletes; making progress in several of its verticals. It attempts to spot young talent, giving the best infrastructure and training in priority sports disciplines at various levels. Odisha is among the 8 states selected for upgradation of sports infrastructure where Bhubaneshwar’s Kalinga Stadium will be repurposed to a Khelo India State Centre of Excellence.
The 12 verticals of the objectives of the Khelo India programme.
Odisha has shown its mettle to become a sports-rich state by organizing marquee events, including the men’s hockey senior (2018) and junior (2016) World Cups (HWC) as well as the growing representation of its athletes across sports at the national and international stage in the last decade. Odisha is the official sponsor of Hockey India (HI) and has become a proven force in hockey infrastructure and coaching setup, allowing HI to unhesitatingly hold any training camps including the recently concluded national junior and sub-junior women championships.
“Odisha sponsors the Indian Arrows team and the U17 national team. We are supporting the future of Indian football. In fact, our girls have performed better than boys and we have been supporting them as well. Therefore, we are one of the host venues of FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup. Many of the girls come from rural areas, and football has changed their lives.” – Vineel Krishna IAS (Special Secretary, Sports & Youth Services Department, Govt. of Odisha).
Odisha was conferred with the Sportstar Aces ‘Best State of the decade for the promotion of sports Award’.
Odisha is also the strategic partner of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and is all set to host the 5th edition of the Indian Women’s League (IWL). It also serves the base for AIFF’s developmental side Indian Arrows hosting their I-League matches, providing access to top-notch practice facilities for various Indian national teams in different age groups. They have already instated a state women’s league and are one of the hosts for the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup as well as the U17 Women’s World Cup. Apart from the football field, the Kalinga stadium campus is also constructing a Weightlifting hall, Gopichand’s Badminton Academy and swimming pool.
Unintimidated by the pandemic, an Indoor Stadium was inaugurated at Hinjilicut, along with a multi-purpose indoor hall at Chatrapur and Shooting Ranges in Kalinga Stadium in November 2020. This 10 and 50 meters shooting range by Aditya Birla Group in collaboration with Olympian Gagan Narang will allow budding shooters to hone their skills. From hosting the 58th Open National Athletics Championships in 2018 to a state level 30-day training camp for U18 kho-kho players (boys & girls), by sponsoring the Indian national rugby teams till 2023 as well as organizing the recently held 69th Senior National Volleyball (Men & Women) Championship and 2nd edition of the Herculean ITF Triathlon 2021 in collaboration with Tabono Sports at Konark which saw 160 triathletes participate across 4 different categories, the Government of Odisha is right at the forefront of boosting the Sporting ecosystem in India!
Infrastructure development
Odisha’s investment in sports has led to state-wide tech-infra development for the longer run – be it world class amenities or grassroots development of athletes and coaching. Rourkela is the second venue for HWC 2023 and the Odisha Government plans to spend ~200 crore rupees to improve hockey infrastructure and coaching in the Sundargarh district alone. This district is the powerhouse of hockey talent, having given many great players like Padmashree awardee Dilip Tirkey and Sunita Lakra who have captained India and brought laurels at the international level.
“As a tribute to the contribution of Sundargarh to Indian hockey, I would like to announce that we will build a new international level hockey stadium in Rourkela with a seating capacity of 20,000. The new stadium is going to redefine the sports landscape in the region.” – Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
Named after freedom fighter “Birsa Munda” – the tribal folk hero revered as God by his people and with a seating capacity of 20,000+ spectators, it is billed to be the biggest hockey stadium in India! It is spread across 15 acres of land and will be constructed in the Biju Patnaik University of Technology campus by June 2022, where the allied facilities will be developed as a benchmark for other hockey stadiums around the world. The work on synthetic hockey turf in each of the 17 blocks of Sundargarh district along with one each in Ganjam and Sambalpur has already started.
In a series of inauguration events, the Naval Tata Grassroots Center, Dhenkanal was launched with the opening ceremony at the Mini Stadium Dhenkanal. Similarly, the opening ceremony of the Grassroots Center at Deogarh was carried out by international Hockey player and also son of Kardapal Village Roshan Minz. These centres serve as an excellent incubation sports programme from the grassroots across districts in Odisha to tap into the raw talent.
Manifesting the election manifesto!
The key differentiator to other states is the long term planning in these announcements which will not just drive sports but also the overall development in the select regions. This has been possible due to the strong focus of ‘Empowering the Youth’ – part of the 2019 general election manifesto that plans to create world class sport facilities and envisions Odisha as the face of sports in India. Emphasizing on the importance of nurturing sporting talent and enhancement of infrastructure provided to meet these needs, it goes on to enlist the establishment of the Kalinga International Sports city and Bhubaneswar as the Sports capital of the country. In fact, Bhubaneswar has been ranked 3rd among top 5 leading sports cities of India as per Grant Thornton Bharat ‘s survey for fast-developing world-class sporting ecosystem & ability to host mega sports events.
At a time when political party manifestos have been driven by competitive populism, it is heartening to see sports infrastructure development as one of the top priorities and being materialized into tangible results for everyone to see. The manifesto also mentions encouraging youth clubs with greater representation of women, special need athletes along with tribals. Incidentally the work on laying of astro-turfs, setting up of a boys vertical at the HPC and the setting of grassroots centres has seen active engagement in the recent months.
The Odisha 2021 budget for sports and youth services
The ricochet effect
Taking a leaf out of their book, other states have also started investing in infrastructure for hockey’s all round development. Not looking far and in the neighbouring state of West Bengal, Chief Minister announced financial assurance of ₹20 Crores for the development of upcoming International Hockey Stadium, Salt Lake Stadium Complex. Having a seating capacity of 6500, this stadium is spread across 3 acres and is proposed to be completed within a year.
“Continuing our priority for sports, we have built 17 youth residential academies, 34 stadiums, 703 mini indoor stadiums, six swimming pools, 4000-plus multi gymnasium and also developed more than 400 grounds. Overall, we have spent about Rs 400 crore.” – West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
She further mentioned how the state has provided financial assistance to 26,000 clubs and Rs 1 lakh grant to 861 coaching camps in the last 3 years raising the state’s investment in sports to 8289 clubs summing to 82.89 crores. Furthermore, a grant of 1 lakh each to 947 sports coaching camps and 5 lakhs each for 37 sports associations will give an impetus to the development of sports in the region. The state sports minister will undertake a project to select 100 upcoming players and fund their travel costs for participation in national and international qualification events.
Building high flyers
The Tata Trusts have been at the forefront of building sports academies in the country and in partnership with Tata Steel they set up a HPC – Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) with the Government of Odisha in November 2018. With a goal of bringing global coaching standards and establishing a grassroots programme with consistent training, review and monitoring mechanisms, the academy roped in Olympic gold medalist and drag flicker – Floris Ian Bovelander’s Hockey Academy along with the technical partner in Hockey Ace Foundation.
This academy provides education and other life skills, offering players free access to the best of sports science and technology support in that of ace shooter and Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra’s Target Performance (ABTP) Centre which is located nearby as well as an experienced nutritionist, mental trainer and a dedicated physiotherapist. NTHA has continued training despite various challenges due to the COVID pandemic, throwing open the boys residency recently. This comes after the remarkable success of the inaugural girls’ vertical programme set up a year earlier with IndusInd as the corporate sponsor
Watch: The inauguration of the 1st Boy’s Resident Programme
“The good thing about the NTHA is that the infrastructure at Kalinga stadium is designed such that the players can live in a bio bubble. Their hostel is next to the pitch and the food is prepared in the canteen, which is also within the stadium and managed by the Tata’s so we can control the hygiene factor. So during the coronavirus period, the female players were allowed to come to Bhubaneshwar, get tested, and live in the bubble and play Hockey. – Floris Ian Bovelander
In a recent interview, head coach Mr. P. Lakshmi Narayana apprised that 10 girls from the states of Punjab, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh apart from Odisha came for the ongoing trials where the first 3 days were markedly reserved for only observation with individual sessions, followed by 2 days of fitness tests while the last 5 days focused on tactical and technical training. NTHA Project director Rajiv Seth roped in World Athletics Level 5 expert coach Eric Dixon for a 5 week programme of Strength and Conditioning and believes that the cadets of NTHA will benefit immensely from his advice and workouts.
Grooming young athletes
Assam’s Munmuni Das’ sports journey was propelled by the coaching she received at the NTHA. Being a girl and that too from a small town of Joriguri in Tinsukia district, she had to practice alone. However, her talent didn’t go unnoticed for long as the SAI spotted her and she then participated in the NTHA Odisha trials in Bhubaneswar in April 2019 becoming a part of 26 talented children within the 12-18 age group. With the best of coaching and logistics support from the academy, Munmuni played for NTHA at the Nehru Cup 2019 and captained the U-17 Assam girls’ hockey team into the semi-finals of the Khelo India Youth Games 2019. Hear the current ONTH-HPC captain speak on occasion of reaching the 1st ever Junior Women Hockey Academy National Championship, 2021.
In March 2020, the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC team led by Rajiv Seth scouted talent to setup the Boys’ residency vertical programme by conducting trials in various parts of Odisha including Sundargarh sports hostel where 150 boys attended the trials out of which 30 were shortlisted followed by another camp in the Rourkela sports hostel where 25 were shortlisted from a total 180 participants. The scouts traveled beyond the borders to Assam and also to Kodagu district in Karnataka (which has a rich hockey heritage), shortlisting 5 out of 60 participants.
The final selection camp in Kalinga stadium was a two phased setup in November-December 2020 where they were assessed on fitness to arrive at the first-cut list of 48 boys. The next phase evaluated them for their game sense in practice matches along with the latest Swedish TW3 age verification tests (with a variance of 6 months at best) to eventually zero down on a list of 31 (U17) Boys for the resident program from an initial pool of 900 candidates that had undergone the trials. The selection was done with the help of Bovelander Hockey Academy’s partnership with the Hockey Ace Foundation under the guidance of Mr. Warner who was physically present despite the troubled times in this pandemic.
The path ahead now includes mapping selected boys to their specific training programmes using expertise from academy as well as ABTP, sports science and strength training given their diverse background and different needs to prepare them well for 2021 national championship events both at the academy and state level. The chalked out goal plan is to provide technical skills through the intervention of foreign coaches and the teaching methods that they bring, educational opportunities for admission and tutorship within the academy setup so that it doesn’t affect the cadet’s sports training along with nutritional and mental support through a new software – Athlete Management System to have the data ready for themselves. Summing up with registration of the boys on the Hockey India’s portal and adding 9 boys in next year’s roster.
Similarly, the Odisha Athletics High Performance Center (HPC) in Bhubaneswar is setup in collaboration with the Reliance Foundation where two of its athletes – Amlan Borgohain in the 100m and Dilip Naik in the 800m and 1500m – returned with Personal Best (PB) timings in the 24th National Federation Cup in Patiala. This comes after a consistent showing at the Junior Nationals in Guwahati and the qualifying event – World University Games at the Kalinga stadium.
Growing from the roots
As part of the initial activities, the grassroots centres at Majhapara and Dantri in Sambalpur district as well as multiple villages in Kahupani, Alanda, Barsuan, Kadobahal, Purunapani, Nuagaon, Gurundia and Subdega in the Sundargarh district distributed essentials like clothing, first aid kit, ice bag, hockey training manual for beginners to get things started. A quiz competition was also held across centres in Nuagaon, Dhenkanal, Deogarh and Barsuan to foster awareness on this stick game amidst social distancing protocols and was ably supported by many sports enthusiasts.
The first ever Odisha Naval Tata Hockey Grassroot league 2021 was played in two phases – in February at Purnapani, Sundargarh and concluding in March at Bhubaneshwar. Moreover, HI conducted an Umpires Clinic at Kalinga Stadium for HPC Grassroots Talent followed by a recent Grassroot Umpires Workshop, showing us that its partnership with the national governing body is for the all round development of hockey – be it for young athletes or those officiating it.
“We are just not limited to hosting events. The most important part is taking up grassroots development and for that, we have the High-Performance Centres. We have 11 HPC in 10 disciplines and our goal is to nurture grassroots talent to the elite level so that there is a proper path of progression. The path is from sports hostels to academies to regional development centres and finally to the HPC.” – Vishal K Dev, IAS, Principal Secretary to Government, Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha.
Tapping in the passion of yesteryear players
“We were very clear that we wanted to give career opportunities to the erstwhile players from the region – who may or may not have played competitively – but really had a passion towards the sport. So having a strong coach development program was imperative to the success of the program. At times the local players did have the basic skills right, but the communication skills required to teach the children was what needed developing. Majority of the tribal people are very shy and soft-spoken, so we really had to work hard with them to get them to open up on the field.” – Neelam Babardesai, Head of Sports @ Tata Trusts
Sports Tourism
Beyond the machinations of infrastructure and other setups, Odisha has also designed its tourism around sports, capitalizing on the influx of tourists that hosting an international and Olympic qualifying event brings. Murals of hockey captains welcomed those entering the city with a colourful atmosphere along with the beautiful 3D art on the walls of flyovers – an initiative by the Bakul Foundation for the Street Art and Mural Project of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The emotions that English woman hockey player – Samantha Quek felt on seeing her own mural on the walls of one of the streets in Bhubaneshwar is a memory that will be etched in not just her memory but for all hockey fans worldwide! With brand building through a onestop digital platform with Adobe that has shown tangible results in driving user engagement and upstream conversions, Odisha has positioned itself as a top travel destination!
Emulating beyond hockey and regional borders
Hockey’s all-round development in Odisha is certainly leading the way for sports adoption as a case-study. This hybrid use of HPCs to fast-track the development of select athletes and the setting up of grassroots centers with a close tie-up with the government is a model that can be emulated in not just other states but also for the gender inclusive development of other sports. Given that this was done during the pandemic amidst lockdown guidelines and bio-secure bubble mandates shows the level of planning and execution efficiency from all involved. The world class infrastructure, the phenomenal reception from all quarters coupled with the exceptional rise of the youngsters into budding athletes that are fulfilling their sport dreams is a testament to this. Odisha is indeed inching closer to become a bellwether state for sports infrastructure and athlete development. ‘India’s best kept secret’ is out; and it is just a matter of time that other states follow suit and hopefully groom more athletes across sporting disciplines!
Vishy Punditry 
