Come October, India will see another Asian premier tournament on its soils. It will be hosting the Women’s Asian Champions Trophy at Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand State. Six top Asian nations including Thailand will be in action at Ranchi, home of India’s first Olympic captain, Jaipal Singh Munda. It will start on 27th Oct.
As observed in the past, Hockey India is successful in finding another State, instead of Corporate, to sponsor the event. Eastern State of Jharkhand, Odisha’s neighbour, will lend its name to the bi-annual tournament.
India won the ACT in 2016 in Singapore
Tamil Nadu Government sponsored the men’s version of the same recently but the Asian Hockey Federation was successful in retaining Hero title. Now, the October carnival will be called Jharkhand Asian Champions Trophy for women. Ranchiites will have a chance to witness three matches a day in the event. The city has a tradition of turning out in numbers to support hockey, even for the national events such as Hockey India League, National Games or National Championships.
Jharkhand is home state of Hockey India’s present Secretary Bhola Nath, a wrestler in his playing days. He said that the Chief Minister of the State Hon’ble Sibu Soren has agreed to host it when it was requested to him for this when he visited Bhubaneswar for the Men’s World Cup held in January 2023.
“The Asian Hockey Federation Chief, and the FIH chief were here. Our Chief Minister spoke to them and got the nod”, said Bholanath in a press meet today.
Ranchi is known for its hockey culture. Not just the first Olympic captain Jai Pl Singh Munda hailed from here, but it also kept up the tradition of producing men and women’s hockey players. Being one of the Divisional Head Quarters of Indian Railways, the city also has many men and women’s hockey players on its roll.
Ranchi Rays, which was later renamed as Ranchi Rhinos’ had been a popular franchise of the dysfunctional Hockey India League. Ranchi won the inaugural edition.
Present Indian team has as many as four players from Jharkhand.