“Men's Hockey in India Ignites : Watch the World's Best Compete!"

For the second consecutive year, the 2023 Men's Hockey World Cup is going to take place in India.

The matches will be played at two venues Birsa Munda Hockey stadium in Rourkela (20 matches) and Kalinga stadium in Bhubaneswar (24 matches including final) from January 13 to January 29.

Total 16 teams from across the world are going to compete which have been divided into 4 pools consisting of 4 teams each. The winner of each team directly advances to quarter-finals while 2nd and 3rd placed teams from each pool will play crossover rounds from where 4 more teams will reach the quarter-finals.

Pool A: Australia, Argentina, France and South Africa.

Pool B: Belgium, Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Pool C: Netherlands, New Zealand, Malaysia and Chile.

Pool D India, England, Spain and Wales.

This world Cup has already embarked with a breath taking ceremony yesterday at Barabati stadium in Cuttack. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Union sports minister Anurag Thakur, FIH president Tayyab Ikram and Hockey India chairman Dilip Tirkey and other dignitaries were present to welcome all the teams. About 50,000 fans inside the stadium sang "Hockey Hain Dil Mera" along with its music composer, Pritam.

Live performances by Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Disha Patani and K-Pop BLACKSWAN made this ceremony exhilarating.

Last time India held the trophy in their hands was in 1975 . Every Indian is hoping that this time India will surely make a comeback to bring our nations pride back. The matches will be shown live on Star Sports Network channels and also livestream on Disney+Hotstar app.

Report by Anusha

Graphics by Riya Handa