Punjab Lands Historic Hockey Asian Champions Trophy as Bhagwant Mann Unveils Sports Revolution
State’s sports budget has quintupled to ₹1,791 crore as Punjab secures its first-ever international hockey tournament and breaks a 40-year drought in national badminton hosting
Punjab is set to host the Hockey Asian Champions Trophy for the first time in its history, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann announced on Tuesday — a landmark moment for a state that has contributed more than 50 Olympic medal-winning hockey players yet never before staged a major international tournament on home soil.
The six-nation event, featuring India, Pakistan, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and China, will be held in October at the Balbir Singh Sr. Hockey Stadium in Mohali and the Surjit Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar, following the conclusion of the Asian Games on October 3-4. The Asian Hockey Federation has also offered Punjab the chance to host a Four Nations Hockey Tournament annually, further cementing the state’s growing stature as a sporting destination.
Presenting his government’s four-year sports report card under the “Shandaar Char Saal Bhagwant Mann de Naal” series, the Chief Minister said the trophy hosting rights were the clearest sign yet that the AAP government’s Khed Kranti — or sports revolution — was bearing fruit. Alongside the hockey tournament, Punjab has been awarded the National Badminton Championship Under-13, ending a gap of four decades since the state last hosted the event.
The numbers behind the transformation are striking. The sports budget has grown more than fivefold, from ₹350 crore in 2023-24 to ₹1,791 crore in 2026-27, making Punjab the only state in the country to allocate that level of funding to sport. The number of coaches has nearly quintupled, from 500 to 2,458, while 3,100 playgrounds and 3,000 modern gyms are being developed across the state. Participation in the grassroots Khedan Watan Punjab Dian programme has more than tripled, from 1.5 lakh to 5 lakh players.
Mann also pointed to the government’s direct athlete support, with ₹15 lakh made available for Olympic preparation and ₹8 lakh for Asian Games preparation — a first for any Indian state. Medal winners at the Paralympics and Asian Games receive ₹1 crore each, and nine Olympic medalists have been offered positions in the civil services. Nearly ₹100 crore in prize money has been distributed over four years.
The Chief Minister invoked Punjab’s centuries-long sporting heritage, tracing it to the Sikh Gurus — noting that Guru Angad Dev Ji established a wrestling arena at Khadur Sahib and Guru Gobind Singh Ji mastered martial arts — before listing the constellation of current national captains who hail from the state, among them hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, cricket captain Shubman Gill, and football captain Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Framing sports as a direct counter to the state’s drug problem, Mann said, “Sports is the most lethal weapon against the menace of drugs in Punjab.” He added that the revival of the Kila Raipur Sports Festival — through legislation in 2025 after a 14-year gap — exemplified the government’s commitment to grassroots and rural sporting culture.
Separately, Punjab Police reported that its anti-gangster campaign Gangstran Te Vaar, now in its 63rd day, conducted 501 raids on Tuesday, arresting 181 individuals and bringing total arrests since January 20 to 16,678. The concurrent anti-drugs drive Yudh Nashian Virudh, on its 388th day, netted 104 drug smugglers, taking the overall tally to 55,297 arrests.
In a brief ceremony at the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan also unveiled the official Punjab Legislative Assembly Diary for 2026, describing it as an institutional resource to support the efficient conduct of legislative affairs through the year.
