{"id":275047,"date":"2025-04-05T21:35:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T21:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/hil-adopting-dogs-to-making-rotis-and-lots-of-cricket-how-hockey-stars-are-unwinding-in-sleepy-rourkela\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T21:35:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T21:35:03","slug":"hil-adopting-dogs-to-making-rotis-and-lots-of-cricket-how-hockey-stars-are-unwinding-in-sleepy-rourkela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/hil-adopting-dogs-to-making-rotis-and-lots-of-cricket-how-hockey-stars-are-unwinding-in-sleepy-rourkela\/","title":{"rendered":"HIL: Adopting dogs to making rotis, and lots of cricket \u2013 how hockey stars are unwinding in sleepy Rourkela"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adopting stray dogs, jet-setting to Bengaluru for a few rounds of golf, organising watch-parties of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, trying panipuris at a local market, learning to make rotis, or simply whiling away time at a nearby mall.<\/p>\n

Even as they lit up the Hockey India League (HIL) \u2013 from December 28 to February 1 \u2014 with their supreme skills, some of the world\u2019s best players resorted to novel ways to break the monotony, beat the boredom and remain fresh for matches during their over-a-month-long stay in the sleepy city of Rourkela.<\/p>\n

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The league \u2014 responsible for turning around the fortunes of the Indian hockey team \u2014 was restarted in December after a seven-year hiatus. And while its relaunch was welcomed in the hockey world, the decision to hold it in just one city had a mixed response.<\/p>\n

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Rourkela, though hockey-crazy, offers limited recreation options. For the players, it meant that their lives for the last five weeks were largely restricted to the magnificent Birsa Munda Stadium, the adjoining training pitch and gym, and the on-site hotel.<\/p>\n

And so, they found ways to unwind and take their minds off hockey.<\/p>\n

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In a social media post, former World Cup and Olympic champion from Belgium, Victor Wegnez, listed 10 different things he had done during his time in Rourkela. Among these was how his teammates at the Soorma Hockey Club had adopted stray puppies near the team hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a litter of puppies on the way from the hotel to the stadium, and the team has adopted this lot \u2014 taking turns to feed the litter. Sardar Singh (former India captain and Soorma mentor) and Wegnez, in particular, have gone above and beyond to look after them,\u201d Kunaal Majgaonkar, who heads Soorma\u2019s media team, said. \u201cSardar has got them little beds, clothes and food. There isn\u2019t much to do around Rourkela and these puppies have become the best possible distraction for the team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Wegnez, in one of his posts, thanked Sardar for adopting one of the puppies. \u201cMy little boy will grow in a lovely family thanks to Sardar,\u201d he wrote in the post, which also included a video of Australia\u2019s Jeremy Hayward trying out panipuri \u2014 and seemingly finding it not too spicy.<\/p>\n

The players at Soorma also watched the Border Gavaskar Trophy together. \u201cThe boys were following the India-Australia Tests, and there were a few Europeans who had no idea about the game. They were constantly asking the Indian players about the rules, and they found it very intriguing. So, on their off-day, they all got together and played cricket,\u201d Majgaonkar said.<\/p>\n

A video of a cricket match on Soorma\u2019s Instagram shows captain Harmanpreet Singh teasing a teammate about his bowling, and the team\u2019s head coach Jeroen Baart from the Netherlands trying to play a hook shot, among other such moments.<\/p>\n

Cricket is also a big part of the off-day activities for Hyderabad<\/a> Toofans, one of the teams that will compete in Friday\u2019s semifinals, team director Siddharth Pandey said. \u201cEvery 10 days, we looked at doing something fun,\u201d Pandey said. \u201cOur first was a Christmas<\/a> party where we asked the players to play some games. On December 31st night, we had a New Year\u2019s party where we had games again. On January 6, we booked a cricket ground and took the whole team there to play a match,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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They took it a step further a week later. After the Toofans played the Kalinga Lancers, the team was given three days off. \u201cSo, the foreign players went to play golf in Bengaluru<\/a>. Some of the Indians went to Puri, to the Jagannath temple, while some went to Ranchi; I went bowling,\u201d Pandey said.<\/p>\n

Toofans\u2019 defender Arthur de Sloover even tried his hand at making rotis. \u201cThe Belgians have immersed themselves. Not just Arthur in our team, but even Victor and Vincent Vanasch from Soorma HC. They have got along so well with everyone here,\u201d Pandey said.<\/p>\n

The Tamil Nadu<\/a> Dragons, which has also reached the semifinals, made the short trip to Ranchi \u2014 the venue for women\u2019s HIL, where the men\u2019s franchises played a match each \u2014 and took time off to visit the hockey academy in Simdega. The district is home to some of India\u2019s top women players, including Sangita Kumari, Beauty Dungdung and captain Salima Tete.<\/p>\n

A B Subbaiah, former India goalkeeper and Kalinga Lancers team manager, said Hockey India could consider adding more venues from next season so that players can unwind in larger cities.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe played some cricket and football outside the hotel as team-building activities. The city is small, so options were limited,\u201d Subbaiah told The Indian Express<\/a>. \u201cThere are two malls where we occasionally went out with Indian players, but bigger cities offer more activities like bowling or golf. Holding the league in one place for such a long time felt a bit tiresome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subbaiah said while the players tried to make the best out of the situation, playing cards by the pool at the team hotel, video games and so on, there was feedback that the league could be condensed a bit because there were too many breaks between matches.<\/p>\n

While playing a five-week league in Rourkela may not have been ideal, as Wegnez put it, some of the overseas players lived \u201cthe Indian experience 100 per cent\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n