Bhubaneswar: With the hockey fever already gripping the city defending champions Australia, last edition’s finalists the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan and Canada became the latest teams to arrive Saturday for the upcoming men’s hockey World Cup which starts here at the iconic Kalinga Stadium next week.
While, the kangaroos landed in the afternoon, the Dutch, the Belgians and the Canadians arrived late in the evening. However, the Pakistani team arrived amidst high security will all the top-level police officers of the state at the venue.
The participation of the four-time world champions Pakistan was in dilemma as it was reported that their visa applications were not processed by the Indian authorities initially. However, much to their relief the players and officials were granted visas and nine million Pakistani rupees were also passed for their participation for the mega event.
Bhubaneswar has been a happy hunting ground for the Aussies as they claimed the 2014 Champions Trophy and the Hockey World League Finals in 2017 and skipper Aran Zalewski termed it as a home-coming for the World No. 1 team.
“Definitely, we have a chance to test ourselves against the best in the world as we haven’t tested ourselves since Rio (2016 Olympics) so we want to do very well here,” Zalewski told the reporters.
Earlier, Friday midnight, England and New Zealand also landed in the city after their flight was delayed by one and half hours.
“We are happy to be here once again and looking forward to get the tournament started. The stadium looks amazing. The crowd here is one of the noisiest one and hope that we get the same amount of support like we got last time,” English forward Mark Gleghorne said to the reporters.
“It’s our first time here in Bhubaneswar and it really feels good. There are some tough teams like Australia, hosts India, Belgium, the Netherlands and England, so it’s going to be a good contest,” Indian-origin New Zealand midfielder Arun Panchia stated.