Will Odisha men's hockey team live up to their reputation in National Championship in Jhansi?

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Odisha has been a major hub of international hockey since 2014. Despite conducting international tournaments and being main sponsors of the national men and women's hockey teams, the performance graph of the state hockey teams has been unsteady.

After the not so impressive performance of Odisha state women's hockey team in back-to-back major national competitions in February, the men's team has a challenging task to defend title at the upcoming 15th Hockey India Senior Men's National Championship slated to be held from April 4 to 15 in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh.

Odisha's Olympian and former defender Dilip Tirkey blamed lack of good coaching structure in the state for not so encouraging performance of the women's team at the national level. Tirkey is the president of Hockey Odisha and Hockey India. "We need to restructure the coaching programme in the state for better results," he added.

The Odisha's women's team failed to impress at the 38th Uttarakhand National Games followed by another dismay performance at the Hockey India National Senior Women's National Championship held from February 17-24 in Panchkula, Haryana.

The Odisha team failed to go beyond quarterfinals. A senior hockey coach from Odisha, however, put the ball back in Tirkey's court saying there was no proper selection. "Some of the good players weren't selected in the team," the state hockey coach added.

Onus is on the men's team to deliver the goods! Odisha's Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medallist, Amit Rohidas, is expected to shoulder the responsibility of the state team in the national meet in Jhansi.

"Rohidas and three other players from the national camp have joined the state camp in Rourkela. Two junior national players are also in the camp," Bijay Kumar, men's hockey team coach told Mykhel over the phone from Rourkela.

"The players have to combinelike a well oil-machine right from the pool stage matches to quarterfinal andsemis to stay in the race for the title."

The month-long camp of 32 players was organised to prepare the state team as majority of the players are experienced and well versed with the domestic competition, Kumar added.

"The final 18-member team will be selected Thursday(April 3)," the men's hockey team coach said. New format of the top 12 teams in Division A, the last two teams will be relegated to the lower group.

Similarly top two teams from the lower group will moveup to the upper group. "The new format was initiated in the women's national championshipsin February and the same format will be followed in the men's tournament," Tirkey added.

Odisha men's team has been clubbed in Pool A with Punjab and Madhya Pradesh in Division A. The Pool B teams are Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bengal are clubbed in Pool C. The Pool D teams are Manipur, Karnataka and Puducherry.

Last June the Odisha government extended the sponsorship of the national men and women's hockey till 2036. Odisha came on board to sponsor national hockey in 2018. The sponsorship deal has been extended from time to time. "The partnership has played a significant role in improving the overall development of hockey," Hockey India president Tirkey had said.