New Delhi :
After successfully hosting FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in the year 2018, Odisha gets another opportunity to host huge event four years later in 2023.
Earlier, International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced that India has won the rights to host the 2023 event leaving behind Belgium and Malaysia.
Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced that the match of the World Cup to be played in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. “We hosted the 2018 World Cup and I would like to announce that the 2023 Hockey World Cup will again be held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. Are you happy. I am happy,” Patnaik said, while addressing the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium in a brief ceremony.
The ceremony was also attended by International Hockey Federation and Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Batra, Hockey India president Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmed, Odisha Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera, besides other dignitaries.
Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium will host the game’s showpiece tournament for the second consecutive time after successfully conducting the event in 2018, which was won by Belgium.
The mega event is to be held from January 13-29, 2023 while the women’s event to be held from July 1-17, 2022. The women’s World Cup would be hosted jointly by Spain and the Netherlands — also the first time the event would be held across multiple countries — in 2022.
The FIH had proposed two windows for both events — in 2022 and 2023. The other bidders for the women’s event were Germany (in 2022), Malaysia and New Zealand (in 2023).
