Once it chronicled Mir Ranjan Negi’s epic fall from grace, Dhanraj Pillay’s artistic stick-work and Sandeep Singh’s muscular drag-flicks but in the past decade or so, Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium seemed resigned to the fact that its glory days as epicentre of Indian hockey were a thing of past.
The two-match Test series against Germany on October 23 and 24 seems like the revival of Delhi’s hockey spirit which has gone dormant in the past 10 years.
Odisha government’s seminal decision to help Indian hockey find its home in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela was a major factor in the shift of momentum, which can swing once again if the fans show up.
Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey is hoping for a good turnout considering the growing popularity of hockey after two consecutive Olympic bronze medals.
“Earlier domestic tournaments used to be held in Delhi in a very spectacular manner. I too made my international debut in Delhi through Indira Gandhi Gold Cup 1995. A large number of spectators used to come here and we also want that the glory of hockey to return to Delhi,” Tirkey told PTI Bhasha.
“After the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, the popularity of hockey has increased manifold and now the stadium will be waiting for the spectators,” said the legendary former defender.
The last international match played here was the 2014 Hero World League Final. Inter-departmental hockey of institutions has also been held here occasionally.
“I was an official here during the 2010 World Cup and people from all over the country came here to watch the match. It was a different atmosphere,” said Ajay Kumar Bansal, former coach of the Indian junior and women’s hockey team and ex administrator of the National Stadium .
“Hockey was being played in Odisha for the last few years, due to which the graph of the game went up there and on the contrary, due to the absence of hockey in Delhi, it went down. The youth did not see any big hockey tournament here, so automatically their interest decreased,” he said.
“Apart from this, due to lack of tournaments, the maintenance of the stadium is also affected. I want that from next time, four or five more venues including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana should be included in the Hockey India League.”
India’s World Cup winning former captain Ajitpal Singh believes that matches with big teams should be played in all the pockets of hockey in India.
“An international match is happening in Delhi after many years. Earlier, many ‘Test’ matches used to be held at the Shivaji Stadium. I think it is important to have matches and tournaments across the country, rather centralising them,” the former skipper said.
“There are many pockets of hockey in India, like many excellent players have emerged from Punjab, Haryana, UP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Hockey is very popular in Odisha and Jharkhand, but it is important to organise big matches in other states as well,” he added.
Giving details of the preparations, officials said the cleaning of astro turf on the main pitch and practice pitches was going on with German machines for a week and the process has been completed. Every year Rs 30 lakh is spent on the maintenance of both turfs.
They said that the spectator galleries, change rooms, dressing rooms, and the entire complex have been cleaned. They also said that there is no need for an upgrade because this is a world-class stadium in which World Cup and Commonwealth Games have been organised.
The stadium also houses a Hockey Academy of the National Centre of Excellence of the Sports Authority of India in which regular practice takes place.
Apart from this, under the ‘Come and Play’ scheme of SAI, some children come and play hockey, who are very excited about these matches.
When India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games in 2010 year on this ground, a flood of emotions had overflowed in the packed stadium.
The National Stadium (formerly known as Irwin Amphitheatre), gifted to Delhi by the Maharaja of Bhavnagar, witnessed the first Asian Games in 1951 and the players shed tears after losing to Pakistan in the hockey final of the 1982 Asian Games.
On this same ground, Australia hammered the host India in the final of the 2010 Commonwealth Games by 8-0, one of the worst ever defeats.
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