Indian hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh’s Insta followers soar after Olympic bronze

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 12

The number of followers of Indian hockey skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who led Team India from the front in the Paris Olympics, has increased manifold and this development has gone viral on social media and become the talk of the town. He hails from Timmowal village, situated on GT road, on the outskirts of Amritsar.

His Instagram following doubled overnight from 1.81 lakh (before bronze medal) to 2.66 lakh on August 9, and reached 3.37 lakh on Sunday. His stellar captaincy earned him the nickname of ‘Sarpanch’ which was promptly picked up by netizens. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed him as ‘Sarpanch’ in a phone call made to congratulate after the team secured a bronze medal in the Olympics after beating Spain in the play-off, he has become popular as ‘Sarpanch’ on the social media. People are tagging him with this name. His posting a picture of him kissing his medal on Instagram, captioned, “Hello India, this is for you,” was an instant hit.

There are several reasons why he has become endearing to the public. His gesture to dedicate the bronze medal earned in the Paris Olympics to goalkeeper PR Sreejesh because it was his last match earned him the goodwill of all.

Last but not least, slotting in 10 goals in the Paris Olympics, Harmanpreet Singh, who has been twice declared the player of the year by FIH, emerged as the top scorer. Earlier in the Tokyo Olympics, he was the highest scorer too.

In the bronze winning match, Spanish skipper Marc Miralles had thrown a thumping challenge before his Indian counterpart by scoring the opening goal. Responding to the challenge, Harmanpreet scored a brace to power India to register a win over Spain.

After ace drag-flicker Jugraj Singh, whose career was cut short by a road accident in 2003, he is the second world-class drag-flicker Punjab has produced. In his three appearances at the Olympics, India won two bronze medals.

Brigadier Harcharan Singh (retd), VSM, Arjuna awardee and a medal winning hockey Olympian and gold medallist in World Hockey Cup 1975, said Harmanpreet kept performing in each match and the entire team played like a well-oiled machine under him.