The tribal heartland of Orissa, Rourkela, where SAIL Hockey Academy has been functioning for more than a decade, got a tremendous hockey boost with the state-of-art stadium, sporting brand new Polygrass turf, came alive last fortnight. Chief Minister of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the stadium named after his father and freedom fighter Biju Patnaik.

To mark the occasion, SAIL XI led by Sundargarh’s Super Star Dilip Tirkey and Rest of India played an exhibition match on 19th June 2005. Rest of India led by Deepak Thakur won the 40-minute match, 20 minutes each half, by a solitary goal scored by Bangalore’s K. Raghunath. SAIL Got four penalty corners, three in first half, but failed to convert any of them. Whereas, the Indian side made use of the first penalty corner to win the match.

About 10,000 spectators watched the match, throng stands on all four sides, which corroborated the fact that how passionate the local populace is about hockey. the match was telecast live by national broadcaster, Doordarshan. The turf cost Rs. 2.56 crores. Though SAIL runs the academy for more than a decade, the laying of turf ran into trouble due to many factors, of late due the private sector running on financial loss. Now that the company is making profilt, the effort to have a turf of its own saw the light.

It is hoped the locals will make use of god send opportunity. It is worthwhile to mention here that both hockey’s men and owmn team captain hail from this area. Sumrai Tete who led India in the KT Cup recently and Dilip Tirkey, who needs no introduction, are from adjacent Sundargarh district.