India to host 2023 Hockey World Cup, new high-performance centre at Kalinga stadium
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has officially announced that Bhubaneswar and Rourkela will co-host the 2023 edition of the FIH Men's Hockey World Cup. Meanwhile sports secretary Vishal Dev confirmed that a new High Performance Centre (HPC) will be coming up inside Kalinga stadium complex.
Having successfully played hosts to the previous edition of the World Cup in December 2018 — with Belgium being crowned world champions — Bhubaneswar will now become only the second city after New Delhi to host successive editions of the World Cup.
"We have always had a very passionate crowd which supports the sport of hockey, and with the presence of world-class, top-of-the-line facilities in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, it swells my heart with great pride that Odisha will once again be celebrating the festival of hockey when we host the FIH Hockey Men's World Cup in January 2023," Patnaik said, reported TOI.
However, the inclusion of Rourkela as a co-host city came does raise accessibility and logistical challenges, especially since it is about 330 km from Bhubaneswar, but sports secretary Dev clarified the thinking behind the move.
"We have three years to work on the infrastructure and other facilities. We already have a stadium with a seating capacity of 20,000 which belongs to Rourkela Steel Plant, we will upgrade it to FIH standards. We also have Pamposh sports hostel turf close by which too will be upgraded," Dev said.
"A Hockey High Performance Centre (HPC) is already functioning in collaboration with TATA steel in a temporary structure. A permanent structure in 1.20 lakh sq metres area is coming up inside the Kalinga stadium premises which will house both the hockey HPC and the Abhinav Bindra Target Performance Centre," Dev added.
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