The Kalinga Sports Complex, the third venue in the country to host the men’s hockey world cup after Mumbai and New Delhi, got the opportunity to host the mega sports event five years after getting its first hockey turf.

Over the years, the stadium attracted fans in a big way making it one of the sought after venues in the country for the game. The construction of the hockey stadium in the sports complex in 2013 proved to be beneficial for the state, which has produced a number of international hockey players, including Dilip Tirkey, Lajrus Barla and Prabodh Tirkey. Prior to the synthetic turf at the Kalinga Sports Complex, the state had four such turfs in Sundergarh district, which is the cradle of hockey in the state.

The hockey stadium, which was initially built with 6,000 capacity, hosted the state-based franchise Kalinga Lancers in the Hockey India League in 2014. The craze for the game paved way for other international tournaments. Subsequently, the stadium hosted Champions Trophy in 2014 and Men’s Hockey World League Final in 2017.

“We used to be desperate to play in the state but the infrastructure was not adequate for international matches. It was an irony that the state that produced so many international players could not host an international match for years. However, in a span of a few years we not only hosted two international tournaments but also the world cup,” said former Indian captain Dilip Tirkey.

The state government had to face criticism when it decided to demolish the swimming complex adjacent to the hockey stadium for construction of two additional galleries for increasing the seating capacity of the stadium to 15,000. Besides, opposition parties criticised the government for spending the lion’s share on hockey and ignoring other sports.

State sports minister Chandrasarathi Behera said: “The sports complex hosted the Asian Athletics Championship and Indian Super League matches. This was only possible due to the infrastructure boost of the sports complex. In future, people of Odisha will witness other major sporting events here.”