How Bhubaneswar is emerging as a global sports destination? Will host India be able to regain the title in the Hockey Men’s World Cup that starts later this month here at Kalinga Hockey Stadium? Is cricket losing its popularity? What made M S Dhoni retire from Test cricket? How statistics became extremely crucial in today’s world of sports? What needs to be done to educate common man about hyperandrogenism?
These are the topics on which eminent sportspersons, coaches, sports journalists, authors, administrators and politicians from across the globe expressed their views on the opening day of the two-day Ekamra Sports Literary Festival here at Hotel Mayfair Lagoon today.
Tauted as the first of its kind in Asia and organised jointly by Department of Sports & Youth Services, Government of Odisha and Emerging Sports as a buildup to the Hockey World Cup, the festival was inaugurated by the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Welcoming all, he said sports literature can create a special kind of aura about sports in the minds of people.
The Chief Minister also said that Odisha has been the cradle of hockey for several decades now and hosting the World Cup in the Capital City would be glory for the state. He unveiled the cover page of sports magazine `Hockey Bytes’ and World Cup Ready Reckoner on the occasion.
Odisha Sports Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera and Sports Secretary Vishal Dev threw lights on the measures taken the state government to promote sports in a big way and make Bhubaneswar a global sports destination.
Legendary Australian fast bowler Jeff Thomson shared his view on the dwindling popularity of cricket and various aspects of fast bowling. Discussion on cricket also featured on author Bharat Sunderesan’s book on former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Test opener Aakash Chopra’s book, Numbers Don’t Lie.
The topic `Hyperandrogenism – One word, too many opinions’ was an interesting one, featuring discussion on the number of testosterone among female athletes. With India’s best-known sprinter Dutee Chand from Odisha and all the controversy surrounding her gripping the world of sports, well-known panelists namely Madeleine Pape, Santi Soudarajan, Gopi Shankar delved deeper into the issue. They shared their views on how many sportspersons are in the middle of the crisis, and what needs to be done to educate the common man about it.
The discussion on the Hockey Men’s World Cup 2018 and host India’s chances of regaining the title turned out to be most lively. The panelists included former hockey Indian captains Ajitpal Singh, Dhanraj Pillay, Dilip Tirkey, Australian legend Ric Charlesworth and mid-fielder Brent Livermore. Most of them hoped for an India-Asutralia clash in the final.
The moderators of the day’s discussions were triple Olympic gold medal winning Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice, Shireen Sethi (NNIS), Nikhil Naz (NDTV), Arup Ghosh and Jitendra Kumar Mishra. Emerging Sports founder and sports journalist Sundeep Misra hoped the Ekamra Sports Literary Festival to become an annual event and the best in the world.
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TOP: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and other dignitaries at the opening ceremony of the Ekamra Sports Literary Festival in Bhubaneswar on Nov 2, 2018.