Punjab Want Jalandhar to Become a Regular Home for International Hockey After Asian Champions Trophy Success
Jalandhar put on a show during the Asian Champions Trophy. Now Punjab want it to become a habit.
Hockey Punjab president and Hockey India vice-president Nitin Kohli has said the state plans to host regular national and international tournaments in Jalandhar, building on the Asian Champions Trophy that finished there and in Mohali. The league phase played out at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar, with the semi-finals and final at Mohali, and the crowds turned up every night.
Kohli said Hockey India and the Asian Hockey Federation had both praised the spectator turnout and the support the matches got in Punjab. His words were clear enough: the tournament’s success has opened the door to bigger events, and efforts will be made at the right level to bring the 2027 Junior Hockey World Cup to Punjab. Regular competitions at Jalandhar’s stadium are part of the same plan, giving local players high-level hockey at home and giving fans a reason to keep coming back.
Why Punjab are pushing now
The timing is no accident. India won the Asian Champions Trophy in front of a packed Mohali crowd, beating Japan 4-1 in the final to claim a sixth title and a third in a row. Harmanpreet Singh finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 10 goals and was named player of the tournament. India won all seven of their matches. Jalandhar saw the lot of the league phase, from India’s 13-0 opening win over Bangladesh to the 4-2 thriller against Malaysia, and the stands stayed full.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already gone further, talking up Punjab as a host for the 2030 Hockey World Cup after the final. The state government points to six new astroturf grounds already built, two more under construction, and a sports budget of 1,744 crore rupees. India last hosted the World Cup in 2010, so a 2030 return would be a 20-year homecoming. Worth saying plainly, though: neither the 2027 Junior World Cup nor the 2030 World Cup has been awarded to Punjab. These are ambitions being pushed in public, not done deals, and any formal decision sits with the FIH.
Even so, the direction of travel is obvious. Punjab has the stadiums, the crowds and now the recent track record of staging a continental tournament without a hitch. Jalandhar hosting international hockey once was a nice story. Punjab want it to be routine.
