Punjab is welcoming hockey teams from Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea and Bangladesh with drums, bhangra and giddha as Jalandhar and Mohali prepare to host the ninth men’s Hero Asian Champions Trophy.
Beginning Tuesday, the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar will host the opening round of the six-team tournament. Host India joins the five visiting nations in the competition, which will conclude on November 5. Pakistan is not participating.
For Punjab, which has contributed generations of players to Indian and international hockey, the tournament offers a rare opportunity to host a major multinational competition.
The tournament will be held in two stages. All six teams will face one another in a round-robin league in Jalandhar before the competition moves to the Olympian Balbir Singh Hockey Stadium in Mohali for the classification matches, semifinals and medal games.
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The league standings will determine the matchups for the final stage. The fifth- and sixth-placed teams will contest the fifth-place playoff, while the top four will advance to the semifinals. The losing semifinalists will compete for bronze, and the winners will play for the title on November 5.
Hockey holds a prominent place in Punjab’s sporting culture. Despite the state’s long record of producing players who have excelled at continental and international levels, opportunities to host multinational tournaments have been limited.
One significant chapter in Punjab’s association with Indian hockey came in 1975, when the state government, led by then-Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh, supported the national team’s preparations for the third FIH Hockey World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
The government made the grass fields at Panjab University available for training and arranged accommodation for the players in a newly commissioned women’s hostel.
Triple Olympic gold medalist Balbir Singh and coach Gurcharan Singh Bodhi oversaw the team’s preparations, assisted by Dr. S.S. Gill, a physical fitness trainer at Panjab University.
Doctors from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) supported the players’ medical care. Dr. Rajinder Kalra, then deputy medical superintendent of PGIMER’s Nehru Hospital, was assigned to work with the team.
India went on to win the 1975 World Cup, following bronze in Barcelona in 1971 and silver in Amsterdam in 1973. The victory remains a landmark in Indian hockey history and the country’s most recent World Cup podium finish.
More than five decades later, the Punjab government is again supporting an international hockey tournament, this time as sponsor of the Asian Champions Trophy.
The competition comes ahead of state assembly elections expected early next year. Its hosting also follows a broader pattern of Indian states supporting international hockey events over the past decade.
Participating teams arrived through airports in Amritsar and Chandigarh before traveling to the host cities. Players and team officials received traditional welcomes featuring bhangra performances and gifts of Indian clothing and handicrafts, including phulkari.
India enters the tournament as a favorite and is scheduled to play the final match on each day of the round-robin league.
Admission is free, although spectators must reserve their seats online.
