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

“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 to play in bigger tournaments in Chennai or at the national level. Tough kudukalam, jeikalaam. (We can give tough competition to anyone and win more),” Athiban, who hails from Sivakasi and has been at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) hostel in Madurai for four years now, tells The Indian Express.

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

He has represented the state at the sub-junior and junior nationals in the last couple of years. “We feel lucky that we have this facility here now.”

Madurai has a hockey tradition with nationals being held here in the 1960s and is home to several hockey clubs. Being near places that have served as hockey nurseries for years tipped the scales in its favour when organisers were brain-storming over the location of an additional venue to accommodate 24 teams that travelled to India for the Junior World Cup.

When it was decided that the Junior tournament would be held in Tamil Nadu, Chennai was the obvious first choice as host city. The Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium is an iconic venue with plenty of history, but had gone 16 years without hosting an international tournament until the 2023 Asian Champions Trophy came along.

A call had to be made on an additional venue and there was initially a proposal to install another pitch in Chennai.

“Then we decided to take it to another city,” J Meghanatha Reddy, IAS — CEO & Member Secretary, SDAT— tells The Indian Express.

“Madurai has a natural ecosystem for 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 to create a world-class facility down South. There was an old pitch in place, with just a broken fence. We thought why not create something wonderful out of this? And we executed the project in 4 to 5 months.”

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

While hosting a tournament of this magnitude is a first for Madurai, the region occupies 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 1980s. They have produced hundreds of players from villages like Kovilpatti, Rajapalayam, and Palayamkottai,” says Dhinesh Kumar, Ramnad’s District Sports Officer, who 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 hosted half the group-stage matches and is scheduled to stage post-group classification games, while Chennai will hold key knockout games. The organisers also managed to schedule one India match here.

Athiban, a volunteer for the tournament who had just been out in the middle with the Dutch players, said it was an eye-opener for him.

“We tend to hit some slow, lazy passes at times, but their passes are just so powerful and precise with timing.”

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 back home,” he says.