In the ongoing Hockey World Cup, India is performing well. They have been able to win their first match against Spain. In their second game, India managed to draw the game against England.
They are being hopeful that they will likely break the 48 years of drought. For that, they will have to win the match against Wales on 19th January. But for this win, they will have to take a big lead.
In this edition of the World Cup, there are 16 teams. Those have been divided into a group of 4. So, there are four groups namely A to D. India is in group D along with England, Spain and Wales.
On the competitive front, Belgium and Australia are the favourites to lift the cup in this edition. The tournament is being played for the second time in a row in India. Bhubaneswar and Rourkela are the cities, which are hosting the games.
Currently, on the points table, India and England have 4 points each. But England is on top as they have won the match by a bigger margin.
For this tournament, Odisha has spent an amount of 10.98 billion rupees for the financial year 2022-23. This money has been used to build a new stadium in Rourkela and a facelift to the existing one in Bhubaneswar.
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The amount has been used to also beautify the two cities. For the unknowns, the stadium that has been built in Rourkela is the biggest Hockey stadium in the world. The stadium can accommodate 20,000 people at the same time.
The matches in the tournament are also going completely packed. The matches are also getting attention on the live telecast the last time India won the Hockey World Cup was in 1975. During that tournament, the final was between India and Pakistan.
But this time, India has performed well in the Olympics also. They have been previously the Olympic Gold medallist for 8 times. So, the Indian Hockey team is going to give a tough fight to whichever team they will face in the tournament.
On the player’s front, Hardik Singh did encounter an injury during the match against England. But there is nothing to worry and coach Reid did ensure that he is alright.
In recent times, the Indian government is also putting in the effort to promote various games other than cricket. States especially, Odisha have been able to promote the hockey game to a great extent. It has also been able to present itself as a state that has given sports equal importance as any other field like education. There have also been good players in the Indian Hockey team from Odisha at a regular pace.
So, now we will need to patiently wait for the finals to see whether the Indian team manages to lift the World Cup this time or not. The tournament can end in favour of any team, but this event will surely make India a worthy contender for the future several tournaments in various other sports.
Eduindex News 
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