New Delhi: As the Indian hockey team reached here on Monday night amidst unprecedented security and curious onlookers, the spotlight was firmly on Indian captain and Player of the Tournament Sandeep Singh, who walked out of the airport with the Sultan Azlan Shah Trophy clutched tightly in his hand. The rest of the team did join in happily to pose with the trophy for the waiting media, but one man was content to stay in the shadows.

It has been 14 years at the international level but Dilip Tirkey is still the same shy, reticent, hardworking and soft-spoken person. The 31-year old stands out in that crowd of confident and outspoken youngsters — and so do his achievements.

The Azlan Shah win may be a big boost for Indian hockey, but it means a lot more to Tirkey. After making his debut in 1995, he became the most-capped player in the world with 405 international matches against his name.

‘Just doing my job’

Expectedly, Tirkey is quick to play down the statistical highlight. “I never knew about the milestone or anything. For me, it was always about playing hockey, being fit and doing my job in the team. The first time a figure was put against my name was last year, in an article that said I had played around 370 matches and was the second-most capped player in the world,” he says, moving further away from the cameras.

Didn’t he want to share the spotlight? “I have been playing for so many years. It sometimes is amazing — and unbelievable — to see those that I played with are now the coach and manager of this team, and I am still playing for India. It is a feeling that can’t be described. The youngsters are excited and they deserve to be in the spotlight,” he says with a smile.

Tirkey has largely been misunderstood, and often his soft-hearted approach has helped his critics to argue that Dilip was not captain material or tough enough to survive at the international level. “On the field I am tough. For me, toughness is not fighting or abusing my opponents, it is frustrating them by doing my job well, by not letting them get past me,” he says, as the flashbulbs, done with Sandeep, suddenly realise Tirkey’s presence.

What next? “The Asia Cup,” he says without a pause; then “we have only now begun winning. We hope to carry this on,” he signs off while suddenly finding himself in the middle of the spotlight that he had religiously ignored all this while. But perhaps, Tirkey deserves his five minutes of fame.