Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

is a sport that is gaining popularity in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is played mostly in places like

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Sikkim Sikkim ( ; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Koshi Province of Nepal in the west, and West Bengal in the ...

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, and Jammu and Kashmir in the north of India, where cold weather occurs and the game can be played outdoors. Ice hockey enthusiasts from other places in the country, as well as expatriates, head to places like Ladakh for the experience of playing in some of the highest elevated rinks in the world. There are a few artificial indoor ice skating rinks in the rest of the country, such as the Doon Ice Rink in Dehradun, which can accommodate ice hockey with an international-sized rink. Ice Hockey was part of the 2020 Khelo India Winter Games in Gulmarg. Ladakh is host to the world's highest altitude ice hockey tournament. Along with the Indian Ice Hockey Championship and the Khelo India Winter Games, India also has th
Royal Enfield Ice Hockey League
and th
Spiti Cup
in Himachal Pradesh. In Ladakh, th
CEC Ice Hockey Cup
also takes place, along with more tournaments in different parts of northern India.

About

The India national ice hockey team has been competing at the international level since 2009 with

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Adam Sherlip behind at the bench during the tournament in

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

. Adam also coached in Ladakh through The Hockey Foundation. India won the 2nd place in the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia.

Clubs

The country's two oldest ice hockey clubs are Shimla Ice Skating Club, which has existed since 1920 but began playing ice hockey much later, and Ladakh Winter Sports Club, which was established in 1995. The best-known clubs affiliated to the IHAI are: * Ladakh Winter Sports Club * Indo-Tibetan Border Police *

Ladakh Scouts The Ladakh Scouts is a mountain infantry regiment of the Indian Army, nicknamed as the "Snow Warriors" or "Snow Leopards". The regiment specializes in cold-weather warfare and mountain warfare, long-range penetration, maneuver warfare, raiding w ...

* Shimla Ice Skating Club * High Altitude Warfare School * Kargil Ice and Snow Sports Club

In popular culture

In 2011, an Indo-Canadian film Speedy Singhs based on an Indian ice hockey team was produced by actor Akshay Kumar, who is a fan of the sport. He also made a contribution to the Ice Hockey Association of India to encourage greater participation and awareness in the sport.

References

External links

Ice Hockey Association of India
{{Sport in India

About

Clubs

In popular culture

See also

References

External links