The thronging Indian fans at Hyderabad were tense at the halftime of the last league match between India and Pakistan. The hosts of the first Afro-Asian Games were trailing by a goal at lemon break. Since both the teams have already made it to the semifinals, it was supposed to be a formality contest but it is never the case when the arch- rivals lock horns in any hockey match anywhere in the world. So was it on that Monday. Indian fans heartbeat increased with the knowledge that the gangling youngster Kawalpreet Singh suffered a cramp and ruled out for the remainder of the match. The new sensation Len Aiyappa came in as substitute for Kanwalpreet and was doing a creditable job in the defence.

But Kanwalpreet Singh was impatient at the bench. He was persisting with coach Baldev Singh. Cautious fitness expert with the team Sampath Kumar admonished him. Two minutes after the halftime break, the coach-physio duo yielded. Kawalpreet was on the turf. Within a minute, he picked up a ball from the rival’s circle and surged forward with a serpentine run towards the right side of the ground. Even as the Pakistan defenders seemed to feel he would part the ball, he moved ahead with the guile of a smart rugby player and sent a gem of a cross pass to winger Prabhjot at the edge of the striking circle. Prabhjot, benefiting from a ball served on platter, bounced on to it for the equalizer. Just one pass and two players, India scored the equalizer. Soon, Kawalpreet twisted his ankle and had to be taken out of the field.
But he had no qualms. His job had been done. “How can I sit? It’s a match against Pakistan yaar”, he said when prodded why did he risk his career. “Seeing his eagerness, I had no option but to yield”, Baldev said while the team was on its victory lap. Building on the 2-2 scoreline, India defeated Pakistan 4-2 in the first ever Indo-Pak floodlight contest in India.

The small episode explains the persona of 22-year young Kanwalpreet Singh. “He is always a fighter”, chief coach Rajinder Singh, himself an accomplished defender, describes him aptly.

The lanky defender was the silent hero for India at Hobart in the Junior World Cup where he surpassed everyone’s expectations, showing tremendous form and grit. While another defender Jugraj Singh made it to the headlines with his drag flick goals, Kanwalpreet, his peer in the Punjab Police, was doing the reverse — preventing the rival forwards from scoring — to perfection. At crucial stages when it mattered most he also scored. The winner he netted against the Dutch in Hobart paved the way for the Indian colts to resurrect themselves from the brink of exit from the championship. In all, he had three goals against his name at Hobart.
After a two-year stint in the Punjab & Sind Bank Academy in Jalandhar (Punjab) and a brief spell on his Bank’s payrolls, the Chandigarh’s Siwalik Public School product, joined the Punjab Police in 2001. He was still a precocious teenager, just 18 years old.

Though in the camp for the 1999 Junior Challenge Cup, he made his first trip abroad for the Junior Asia Cup only in 2000. He was then in the team for the 4-Nation tournament before being a part of the 2000 Akhbar el Yom title winning team in Egypt. He made his senior spurs in the Malaysia-New Zealand tour under coach Cedric D’Souza in 2001 after which he played the best hockey of his career at Edinburgh in the Word Cup Qualifier. With the experienced defender Lajrus Barla sustaining an injury in the first match, the novice filled in his slot ably and played all but one match there. Thereafter, he was soon in action again in the 6-Nation Cup in Poznan, before making it to the Hobart Junior World Cup. The rest as they say is history.

NOTE: Rest in the Book