Bhubaneswar: In the last few years, Odisha has positioned itself in a distinct place in the country as the favourite destination for international sports events. At a time when other states found it difficult to host a number of prestigious events for the country for various reasons, Odisha stood ahead and took the challenge and hosted some of the big ticket events like Hockey World Cup and the Asian Athletic Championship.
In a small step towards a bigger goal, first, the State won the franchise for Kalinga Lancers in the Hockey India League (HIL) in 2013. The next achievement was the hosting of the prestigious Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament in 2014 which proved its command over management of bigger world class events.
The important three big ticket events, the Asian Athletics Championship, Hockey World League of 2017 and the 2018 edition of the Hockey World Cup, uplifted Odisha’s status as a hot destination of top sporting events.
If the Champions Trophy and Asian Athletics Championships put Odisha on Indian sports map, Hockey World Cup was the jewel in the crown. The State Government worked overtime to turn Kalinga Stadium into a world class venue, kicked off the HWC with a magnificent opening ceremony and delivered the event with utmost perfection to win appreciation from all participating teams.
This transformative journey of Odisha Sports started way back in 2010-11 when the Chief Minister’s Private secretary VK Pandian joined CM’s Office and the two sports lovers (CM is a great lover of hockey and himself was a golie in hockey and V K Pandian who came from a sports hostel) drew the road map to put Odisha into the global map so far as promotion of sports is concerned.
Due to his hard work Kalinga Stadium Sports complex in Bhubaneswar has become a global destination for hockey events.
Not only hockey or football, the State is promoting other sport like Tennis, Badminton and Rowing to name a few. Recently, the State successfully hosted the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the historic Barabati Indoor Stadium at Cuttack.
Investment in sports is investment in youth and the future. This is what Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been reiterating time and again. Under his leadership Odisha has become the number one state in promotion of Sports in the country.
Transformation of sports is an integral part of the 5T initiatives of the Governemnt. The high power academies, world class sports infrastructure and hosting of International tournaments are a part of the transformation that is Odisha is witnessing in the field of Sports. As the Government is focusing on the youth, Sports and Athletics get the due attention. Sportspersons in Odisha are being given the needed financial support for world class training.
Infrastructure development and increase in cash awards for achievers are the other areas through which the State is promoting sports comprehensively. The Sports hostels in the states are getting a new facelift with state of the art infrastructure.
The State Government under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik is also enhancing the incentives for coaches who would shine a raw talent into world class sports persons.
Odisha is also taking care of the grassroots development by organising tribal sports meets and talent-scouting from an informal voluntary youth group (BijuYuvaVahini) for admission of youth to 16 sports hostels covering 12 disciplines.
The State has tied up with several legendary sportspersons including Abhinav Bindra, P. Gopi Chand, Gagan Narang and Anil Kumble to establish different high performance centres.
Odisha’s accession to becoming the sports powerhouse of the country can be hailed as a successful model for the rest of the states in the country to follow, and the person behind the scene is non-other than V K Pandian, who himself is a sports lover and was a sportsman during his study days.
Pandian who is a middle distance runner from a sports hostel , along with Vishal Dev ( Secretary Sports ) and Vineel Krishna ( Director Sports ) are transforming the sports ecosystem of the State… and fast forwarding Odishas journey to becoming the Sports capital of India.