When Hockey stick did the talking

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, August 5

As Indian hockey team scripted history in the Olympics on Thursday, tears of joy flowed from almost every Indian’s eyes, as everyone waited for this momentous day. The men in blue finished at the third spot by winning a bronze for the country.

Baba Sewa Singh, patron of the Kar Sewa sect and Nishan-e-Sikhi, Khadoor Sahib, who also runs Baba Uttam Singh National Hockey Academy, was also instrumental in providing a training ground to budding players, some of whom are in the current squad. Star hockey players — Varun Kumar, Mandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh — started training quite young at the academy.

Inspector Harmeek Singh, who coached Varun and Mandeep from 2006 to 2008, said Varun was very shy, but skilful, while Mandeep was an all-rounder besides a good scorer. Dilpreet’s father Balwinder Singh from Butala is the chief coach at the academy. While talking about his son, he said he started practising when he was just seven and never missed seeing Olympics matches. He said: “Dilpreet always used to say that he must participate in the Olympics to win a medal one day and so they did. As I was a coach at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Academy, Amritsar, from 2008 to 2011, Dilpreet, too, started practising. He was hardly eight and always insisted on staying with me to practise the game. I told him that you can’t even tie your hair (jura) on your own, how will you play? Within no time, he learnt to tie his hair after practising it a number of times.” While remembering Varun and Mandeep, Baba Baldev Singh said they had firm determination and were well-disciplined and never missed coming to the ground.

He said Mandeep used different techniques right from the beginning and was hardly 8-years-old when he started captaining. He would always be declared as the best player in almost all tournaments. “These are moments of another upswing for Indian hockey and we wish the team will strengthen itself to gain further glory. It did not happen overnight, it is a fruit of toilsome efforts of hockey lovers and institutions like Hockey India,” he said. Secretary, Nishan-e-Sikhi, Avtar Singh Bajwa; director of Baba Uttam Singh Hockey Academy Sandeep Singh; Baba Baldev Singh, hockey coach Jaspal Singh and Principal Beerinder Singh also sent congratulations.