Dhanraj Pillay, Dilip Tirkey back to playing each other again
NEWDELHI: Fans visiting the Kalinga Stadium on Wednesday will get a feel of how the Indian hockey team looked and played like 15-20 years ago when former greats of the game will again grace the Astroturf in Bhubaneswar.
Former India skippers Dhanraj Pillay and Dilip Tirkey will lead teams comprising former and current players that will play against each other to inaugurate the refurbished stadium which will host the 14th edition of the hockey World Cup from November 28 to December 16.
“I am very excited for this match and happy that I’ll meet my ex-colleagues. We don’t get to meet much. We have spent our lives together playing for India. This match will be interesting as it is a mix of old and new players and I am looking forward to it. It’ll be different as every veteran will try to show to the new players that ‘I am still the best’,” said Dhanraj, who played for India from 1989 to 2004.
“Dilip was a penalty corner specialist so he would want forwards to create PCs so that he can hit from there. I’ll also try to show the same speed (like in my playing days) and stop him,” said the four-time Olympian, who last played competitively in 2012 but still picks up the hockey stick to coach children.
Among the other former and current players who will take centre stage are: PR Sreejesh, Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, Viren Rasquinha and Deepak Thakur. While Dhanraj’s team will be coached by Harendra Singh, Australian Chris Ciriello will take up coaching duties at with Dilip’s side.
Possibly the greatest hockey player to come from Odisha, Tirkey said: “There is no better way to portray the glory of Odisha and Kalinga Stadium than getting the past and present of hockey together by the way of this iconic match.
“I look forward to giving fans a good game.”
The match will showcase the recently refurbished Kalinga Stadium, which also hosted the 2014 Champions Trophy and 2017 Hockey World League Final where India finished fourth and third respectively.
“Both the practice and main pitches (at Kalinga Stadium) have been re-laid with a new blue turf as per FIH specification. The stadium capacity has also been increased from 8,500 to 15,000 while adding two new galleries in the north and south ends of the stadium,” Vishal Dev, commissioner–cum-secretary, Department of Sports and Youth Services of Odisha government, said.