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Odisha on Tuesday announced it would keep on supporting the national hockey team for an additional 10 years after the current sponsorship closes in 2023.
While congratulating the men’s and women’s hockey teams in Bhubaneswar after their heavenly show in the Tokyo Olympics, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, “We, in Odisha, are elated that our partnership with Hockey India has led to this great achievement for the country. I believe, Odisha and hockey are destined to become synonymous. We will continue our partnership with Hockey India. Odisha will support the Indian hockey teams for 10 more years.”
Although, the specific amount of sponsorship bargains are yet to be uncovered. In 2018, Odisha had marked a ₹100 crore manage Hockey India for sponsoring the men’s and women’s national team for a very long time after Sahara India pulled out subsequent to getting ensnared in legal issues.
Naveen Patnaik, who granted ₹10 Lakh and each to the players and ₹5 lakh each to the support staff, said every one of the hockey players made Indians glad with their energetic battle at Tokyo.
“These are deeply emotional moments for India to witness the revival of Indian hockey. For nearly four decades, hockey fans have been yearning to see India grab a medal at the Olympics. The way the entire country was glued to the screens to watch the hockey teams’ matches, it is quite evident there is something more to hockey than just sports. In these crisis times, the teams have brought smiles to the faces of crores of Indians. We all should be thankful to our boys and girls,” he said.
Patnaik additionally parted with the ‘player with the most number of goals scored’ award to Harmanpreet Singh while PR Sreejesh won the honor for the player with the greatest number of goals saved. Nilakanta Sharma won the honor for the most number of goals assists, Rupinder Pal Singh won the award for the player with the maximum number of defensive tackles and Harmanpreet Singh and Amit Rohidas were congratulated with awards for interceptions in the midfield.
In the women’s team, Gurjit Kaur and Vandana Katariya won the award for the maximum number of goals scored. Savita Punia won the honor for the number of goals saved. Rani Rampal and Navneet Kaur mutually won the award for the minimum number of assists. Deep Grace Ekka won for the maximum number of defensive tackles and Sushila Chanu was awarded for most interceptions in the midfield.
Rani Rampal, the captain of the women’s hockey team said, “The team and I are very happy to be present here today as we wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the Odisha government for supporting our team. Our team is always made to feel so welcome when we come here. Odisha feels very much like the home of Indian hockey now.”
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