By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: FIH President, Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra presented a replica of the FIH Odisha Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup trophy to V Karthikeyan Pandian, Secretary 5T and to Chief Minister, Odisha, Naveen Patnaik here.
“He is the man who implemented the Vision of Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri@Naveen_Odisha, for development of Hockey in Odisha which entailed the Indian Hockey teams outstanding performances in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” Odisha Sports tweeted @sports_odisha.
When recording serving 5times Odisha Chief Minister Patnaik was the goalkeeper of Doon School’s hockey team six decades ago, little did he know that he would later become the Patron of Indian hockey. If this happened , credit must goes to VK Pandian as he made it as a reality through his well coordination with both administrations and players.
Since past years, Odisha had improved a lot in terms of sports infrastructure because of Chief Minister Patnaik’s guidance with VK Pandian’s Team spirit in improving basic needs for promotions of sports including Hockey.
When Chief Minister Patnaik decided to sponsor both the Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams in 2018, pledging worth a massive Rs 120 Crore for a period of five years, he was VK Pandian who made it a reality by coordinating with all stakeholders as he is the most trusted IAS officer of CMO. After Sahara pulled out of the sponsorship, the Odisha government took over to ensure infrastructural and logistical support and bore the expenses for training and education. This was a historical measure for a cash-strapped state like Odisha became the first State of the Country to officially sponsor the National teams.
Odisha will host the 2023 Men’s hockey world cup for which the construction of India’s largest hockey stadium with 20,000-capacity in Rourkela is underway. It is touted to boost the development of hockey in Sundargarh. It will be the second venue apart from the Kalinga Stadium which the state will be hosting for the second time in a row. It was at the stadium in 2019 where Patnaik also received the FIH President’s Award for his contribution towards promoting sports including hockey.
