Six of India’s Squad Learned Hockey on the Pitch They’ll Play On Next Week
Manpreet Singh made his India debut in 2011. Since then he’s played 430 matches, won two Olympic medals and become a three-time Asian Games gold medallist. He’s never played an international in Punjab.
That changes on Tuesday. And it isn’t just him.
The academy that built half a team
Six of India’s Asian Champions Trophy squad learned the game at the Surjit Hockey Academy in Jalandhar. Manpreet, captain Harmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh and goalkeeper Krishan Pathak all spent their teenage years on the same pitch at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium, where the league stage runs from 27 October to 2 November.
“It is going to be an emotional moment,” Manpreet said, in comments carried by ANI. “When we were selected for the national camps, we carried our dreams with us. The time we spent at the Surjit Hockey Academy taught us not just how to play but also emboldened us to dare to dream big.”
Dilpreet, the youngest of the six at 26, put it more simply. “Our careers launched from here. I played my first national championship from here before getting selected for India.” His parents, he said, keep asking when the tournament starts, and they want to come and watch training sessions, never mind the matches.
A comeback on home turf
For Pathak there’s an extra layer. The goalkeeper is back in the India squad after nine months out, and his return game is on the ground where he trained for seven years.
“I would like to thank the Punjab government and Hockey India for giving us this opportunity to play in Punjab,” he said. “What makes the occasion even bigger for me and others from the Surjit Hockey Academy is that we will be playing at the same ground where we learned the sport for seven years. I don’t think there can be anything bigger than that.”
Jarmanpreet’s story is the one that sticks, though. The two years he spent out of the India team, he spent them back at the Surjit Academy, training and pushing for a way back in. The comeback happened. Now he defends for India on the pitch where he rebuilt himself.
“This is the place that gave us wings,” he said.
The captain’s father
Harmanpreet didn’t try to play it cool either. “It is going to be a special occasion for the entire team, especially for the players who belong to Punjab, because it’s the first time that we will be wearing an India jersey at an international tournament in Punjab,” the captain said. “My entire family is expected to be at the stadium watching me play an international match together from the venue for the first time, including my father, who has never seen me play for the country while sitting inside the stadium.”
Read that again. The India captain’s dad has never watched him play for India from inside a stadium. Tuesday night in Jalandhar, against Bangladesh under lights, that ends.
Hardik Singh, for the record, also spent a couple of years at the Surjit Academy, though he’s mostly counted as a Mohali Hockey Academy product. So call it six and a half.
For our money this is the story of India’s tournament before a ball is hit. India are defending champions and five-time winners, and only Korea among the other five teams have ever lifted this trophy. The hockey should take care of itself. The homecoming is the bit nobody in that dressing room will forget, whatever happens on 5 November in Mohali. The tournament starts with three games on opening day, entry is free for every match, and every score lands in our Live Centre.
