A cadet of SAIL Hockey Academy (SHA), Rourkela has been selected for the Indian Men’s Senior Hockey Team. The cadet Shilanand Lakra has been selected to be a part of the 18-member team for the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Tournament to be played at Ipoh, Malaysia from 3rd to 10th March 2018.
Shilanand, who plays in the forward line, was part of the Junior National Team that won the Bronze Medal at Sultan of Johor Cup held in Malaysia in October 2017. With Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Tournament, Shilanand will be making his debut in the senior national team. Alongside India, the tournament will feature World No.1 Australia, World No.2 Argentina, England, Ireland and hosts Malaysia. It is worth mentioning thatShilanand, son of Mr CarlusLakra and Mrs Mary Grace Lakra, natives of Kalijapathar village of Sundargarh district of Odisha, joined the SAIL Hockey Academy in August 2015. Since then he has been learning the nuances of hockey from veterans like former National Junior India Hockey player Peter TirkeyandNIS Coach Raju Kant Saini.Tirkeyis the Hockey coach of Rourkela Steel Plant.
Recently, the SHA Team has brought laurels by winning Shri Nabagraha Trophy All India Invitation Hockey Tournament, Khargaon,Madhya Pradesh, from 18th to 21st January’2018. In the same month SHA team played outstanding hockey in the 8th Vinod Khandekar Under-21 All India Gold Cup Hockey Tournament (affiliated to Hockey India), Jhansi, U.P., from 23rd to 31st January’2018 and won the trophy against Railway Hockey Academy, Bhusawal, Maharastra.
SAIL Hockey Academy (SHA) was set up in 1992 by SAIL on 15 acres of land at Rourkela, which is known to the hockey heartland of India. Thereafter, in order to provide a centre dedicated to the promotion of the game, an exclusive Hockey Stadium was also built at Rourkela. In June 2005, the most modern facility of Synthetic Turf was installed in the hockey stadium. Besides the hockey academy at Rourkela, SAIL has two football academies at Bokaro and Burnpur, an athletics academy for boys at Bhilai and one for girls at Durgapur. It also has an archery academy at Kiriburu. A number of SHA players have contributed for Indian Hockey.