Men's Hockey World Cup kicks off in Bhubaneshwar

sports_odisha The ball of FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup will start rolling from Friday in Odisha. 

The matches will be played in the iconic Kalinga stadium in capital Bhubaneswar and the newly built state of the art hockey stadium in Rourkela.

The 16 participating teams including India have been divided into four pools with four teams each.

On the inaugural day of the World Cup, India will take on Spain at 7 pm today preceeded by the match between England vs Wales in the same Birsa Munda hockey stadium in Rourkela. 

In fact for this stadium, constructed in a record time of 15 months with all modern facilities to cater to the standards of international hockey and having a sitting capacity of a whooping 20 thousand spectators, these two World Cup matches will be its maiden matches. 

Alongside, Argentina-South Africa and Australia-France will be sweating it out in the afternoon in the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar today.

While about 80 platoons of police force have been deployed in the temple city of Bhubaneswar, similar security arrangements have been made in the steel city of Rourkela to ensure a playful experience for the players and people alike.