Hockey Junior World Cup: Why the stadium is a blessing for Madurai and the neighbouring districts

The region has a strong hockey culture, and now it has a field to fuel their dreams too.

(Above): The old pitch which was there before the construction of the stadium; The Madurai International Hockey Stadium after it's construction (below) (Special arrangement and Express Photo by Vinayakk)

When you think of Madurai, you think of the Meenakshi Amman Temple, the rich local cuisine, the jasmine buds, and for being Thoonga Nagaram – the city that never sleeps. It’s why the city is a popular tourist destination down south. But for 17-year-old Athiban, and many more students of the sport in and around the city, the past few days have been all about hockey. Athiban, along with his friends, has had the chance to witness from close quarters some of the best young players from hockey powerhouses like Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, not much older than him, showing them what it takes to get to this level. More importantly, it brings a world-class stadium to their doorstep – the Madurai International Hockey Stadium in the city’s Race Course area.

“The new floodlights mean we can practice till much later in the night. Getting to play on this new blue Astro Turf means our touch won’t leave us when we go play in bigger tournaments in Chennai or at the national level. Tough kudukalam, jeikalaam. (We can give tough competition to anyone and win more),” says Athiban, who hails from Sivakasi and has been at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu hostel in Madurai for four years now, tells The Indian Express. He has represented Tamil Nadu at the Sub Junior and Junior Nationals in the last couple of years. “We feel lucky that we have this facility here now.”

Athiban, who is a volunteer for the tournament and has just been out in the middle with the Netherlands players for the national anthems, adds that it has been an eye-opener to see Dutch players in action. “We tend to hit some slow, lazy passes at times, but their passes are just so powerful and precise with timing. We got to see them training, too.” The Dutch captain Casper van der Veen was impressed with the infrastructure. “We really like it, the pitch is amazing, the dressing rooms are good too, we could see the amount of work that has been put in, it feels similar to the facilities we have back home,” he says.

The turf of the the Madurai International Hockey Stadium. (Special Arrangement)

Rich tradition

While hosting a tournament of this magnitude is a first for Madurai, the region has a place of pride in Tamil Nadu’s hockey history. “Some of the best hockey coaches in Tamil Nadu were from this region in the late 80s. They have produced hundreds of players from villages like Kovilpatti, Rajapalayam, and Palayamkottai,” says Dhinesh Kumar, Ramnad’s District Sports Officer, who has played for the state in the 2000 nationals and has since transitioned to coaching and administration. “The Reserve Line Sports Club has been in operation for more than 50 years. This region is iconic in Tamil Nadu for producing talent. But the scope of developing locally had been limited; we had to depend on facilities in Chennai. Now we feel like we are part of the international hockey community. Idhu engalukku oru varaprasadham. (It’s like a divine blessing for us).”

At this World Cup, Madurai has been hosting half the group-stage matches and is scheduled to host post-group classification games, while Chennai hosts the key knockout matches. But given the amount of work that had gone in the last five months to get the venue ready, the organisers managed to schedule one India match here, against Switzerland on Tuesday.

The soon-to-be completed pavilion building and the pitch in front before the revamp. (Special arrangement.)

Foundation stone

When it was decided that the Junior World Cup would be held in Tamil Nadu, Chennai was the obvious first choice for the host city. Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is an iconic stadium that has plenty of history, but has gone 16 years without hosting an international tournament until 2023’s Asian Champions Trophy came along. After the success of the Chess World Cup, the Tamil Nadu government was ready to put up another show for the world. But a call had to be made on an additional venue to accommodate 24 teams. There was initially an idea to install another pitch in Chennai.

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“Then, we realised, you know, why should we do that? Let’s take it to another city,” J Meghanatha Reddy, IAS – CEO & Member Secretary of Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu – tells The Indian Express. “Madurai has a natural ecosystem of hockey. Southern Tamil Nadu is known for being a hockey belt. From Kovilpatti to Pudukottai to Ramnad to Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli, we have hostels in these centres. So, Madurai was a natural choice. We thought it was an opportunity where we could create a world-class facility down South. There was an old pitch in place, with just a broken fence. That is what was presented to us. We took it as a challenge and thought: Why not create something wonderful out of this? And we executed the project in 4 to 5 months.”

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There is a tinge of disappointment in Athiban’s voice, as he rues that he can watch only one India match. But when the dust settles and the tournament ends, he and hundreds of budding talents in the region will have an elite facility to nurture their own dreams and hopes.