A huge hoarding of Sardar Singh dwarfing the other international stars welcomes visitors to Raipur. Hockey vishwa league aapki prateeksha kar raha hai (HWL is waiting for you), it says. It won’t be wrong to say the city is eagerly waiting for the tournament as well. Raipur and a new stadium that, till last month, did not figure on the various online maps of the city, will debut in international hockey when host India takes on Argentina in the opener of the Hockey World League Finals at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium here on Friday.
This being the last major international event before the Rio Games — barring Champions Trophy in June next year, to which the winner here would get a ticket — the eight teams participating in the event are cautiously optimistic of their chances on the eve of the competition.
India comes on the back of some impressive performances against world champion Australia in the three-match Test series and captain Sardar Singh admitted the series helped build a positive momentum. “The confidence level is high. Irrespective of the result, the series was good preparation. Also, these are the teams that we will have to do well against at Rio, which makes this event important to assess our growth,” Sardar said.
India also beat New Zealand 2-1 in an away series prior to that and, though on paper Argentina is the higher-ranked side (5th to India’s 6th), the host come with better preparation and would have the crowd behind it.
Pan-American champion Argentina, on the other hand, only managed a short trip to England. Like Australia, being the lone star in a continent makes it difficult for Argentina to get a lot of competitive hockey under its belt and captain Pedro Ibarra admitted the players had little time to adjust as a team.
Today’s schedule: India vs Argentina (6.30 p.m.); Germany vs Netherlands (8.30 p.m.).
