Tamil Nadu significantly upgraded their existing infrastructure at Chennai to host that event in 2023. In two months’ time, they will welcome a part of the hockey community for the junior World Cup in Chennai and Madurai (the stadium there is expected to be completed by the end of September). Ranchi has always had a hockey culture and welcomed the women’s team in 2024. Now, Odisha (one of the biggest sponsors of both hockey teams) is expected to play host but the expanding hockey footprint across the country is hard to ignore.

Why is Bihar hosting this event? Raveendran Sankaran, an IPS officer tasked with changing the face of the state’s sporting ecosystem — his official designation is DG, Bihar State Sports Authority — does understand why the elections have been hyphenated with that of the Asia Cup but ‘I beg to differ’. “It (decision to host it) wasn’t election oriented,” he says. “This event was decided on the back of the women’s ACT. After that meet, Hockey India approached us. That day itself, we spoke to the government.”

The tournament, Sankaran says, is linked to Bihar wanting to reestablish themselves on India’s inequitable sporting map. “Sport has become a priority for the state of Bihar,” the Coimbatore-raised bureaucrat says. “If this tournament had happened in haste, you can say it’s because of elections. But we have been doing it for over two years now.”