As scheduled, the Trophy Tour of the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 officially kicked off here on Monday with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik handing over the trophy to Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey.
Patnaik said, “I hope the Hockey Men’s World Cup Trophy Tour will build excitement for the World Cup across India. We will be hosting 16 teams and the matches will be played in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.”
The prestigious trophy will travel across 13 States and a Union Territory before returning to Odisha on December 25.
In the next 21 days, the trophy will move across West Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh. Afterwards, it will tour in all the districts of Odisha.
The trophy will also visit 17 blocks of Sundargarh district, which has become the ‘cradle of Indian Hockey’.
The last leg of the tour will be in Rourkela before finally returning to the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar where the finals will be played on January 29, 2023.
The FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela will begin from January 13, 2023. Host India, which is placed in Pool D, along with Spain, England, and Wales, will play against Spain on the first day at the Kalinga Stadium.
Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, India, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, England, France, Korea, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa, Japan, Chile, and Wales are the 16 teams participating in the World Cup 2023.