Couple of days before the auction of their jerseys, the hockey trio was in a fix whether it would able to attract a decent number of bidders and could fetch substantiate amount to raise the funds for the 6th Dharm Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament in Chandigarh or not.

However, all apprehensions of ace forwards Rajpal Singh and Prabhjot Singh were ended in a pleasant experience at the auction held at Hotel Regency in Chandigarh on Thursday. There innovative idea of raising the funds through the auction of their national jerseys fetched Rs 2.3 lakh.

“I never had thought even in my dreams that the auction will help us in raising lakhs of rupees for the hockey tournament,” said Rajpal Singh. “I was wrong that in a cricket-crazy country there would not be any takers of our jerseys,” he added.

Jerseys of Prabhjot and Rajpal’s 2007-Asia Cup final fetched Rs 95,000 and Rs 75,000, respectively, while the jersey of Deepak Thakur, who is presently playing in the German league, that he wore during the 2004 Champions Trophy match against Pakistan in Lahore, went for Rs 60,000.

“Though I was separated from the jersey, which I wore to grab the Asia Cup, I am happy that it has been used for a cause of hockey,” said Prabhjot after the auction.

Sandeep Aggarwal of Gomti Agrico, a Jalandhar-based sports goods manufacturing company paid the highest amount of Rs 95,000 for Prabhjot’s jersey. An Australian NRI, Rajpaul Sandhu, who was in the city for some business purpose, purchased Rajpal’s T-shirt worn in the same tournament.

“I saw them for the first time during the 2001 Junior World Cup in Australia and now I am happy that I possessed Rajpal’s jersey. I paid the amount because he is a star player and my namesake and also his jersey no. 12 is my lucky number,” said Rajpual Sandhu.

Deepak jersey was bought by Papinder Singh an Allahabad-based businessman, who wants to gift the jersey to his roller-hockey fan son.

“When my son came to know about the bid though a newspaper he requested me to get one for him. My budget was Rs 1 lakh and I got Olympian Deepak’s jerseys within it,” said Papinder, who was in the city to meet his relatives. “My four-year-old son Sarjit Singh will get a motivation whenever he will see Deepak Thakur’s jersey,” he added.

The first-of-its-kind auction in the region and probably in the country attracted as many as 16 bidders.

Another Related Report

IN A first-of-its-kind initiative to raise funds for a tournament, leading hockey players Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur auctioned the T-shirts worn by them in major championships.

The auction received tremendous response from hockey fans and the three T-shirts fetched a total of Rs 2.3 lakh, with the one worn by Prabhjot attracting the highest price of Rs 95,000.

The three hockey players earlier decided to auction their apparels to raise funds for Dharam Singh Memorial tournament to be held from June 8 to 12 in which eight teams will be participating.

Sandeep Aggarwal, owner of a Jalandhar based sports goods manufacturing company based at Jalandhar paid the highest amount of Rs 95,000 for Prabhjot’s jersey of 2007 Asia Cup final, in which the forward had scored two goals.

Rajpal’s T-shirt worn in the same match, in which he also scored two goals, fetched Rs 75,000, with the Australia-based Rajpal Sandhu making the highest bid.

The sleeveless blue t-shirt of Prabhjot and Rajpal bear the sponsors logo in the front and tri-colors painted on the right front corner.

The sky-blue jersey of Deepak Thakur, who could not attend at the function as he is playing in the German league, fetched Rs 60,000 from Allahabad based businessman Bhupinder Singh.

Thakur had scored two goals wearing the shirt in 2004 Champions Trophy final against Pakistan in Netherlands. India had won that match 7-4