WSH still enthuses players

Ruma Kat

Hockey is the only thing I know,” says 26-year-old Jiwa Mohan, who has come from Malaysia to play in the World Series Hockey in India. Though the event has been postponed till February 29 next year, all the teams in the fray have begun practice for the tournament.

Jiwa Mohan has been selected to play for the Chandigarh team, which is undergoing an eight-day practice camp at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium under coach Harinder Singh.

Jiwa, who began playing hockey at the age of 10, aims only at playing better hockey with every passing day. In the WSH too, the midfielder is looking forward to learn more and enhance his game apart from taking away the title. “I am really excited to be here and play in this tournament where we’ll have an opportunity to meet and play with players from across the world,” he said. “It’ll be a great learning experience for me. The WSH is providing us with a platform of global level of competition so I am looking forward to not only show my skills, but also to learn a lot from my team and other players.”

The Chandigarh team also boasts of some local players. One of them is Sher Singh, who plays for Bharat Petroleum and is aware of the home grounds and conditions. Hailing from Sirsa, 26-year-old Sher Singh first got into hockey in 1998 and has never gave a thought to leaving it since then.

“I had only seen the Punjabi-style kabaddi being played in my village,” he says. “No other sports were being played there. When I was 10, my friends took me to a nearby city, where I first saw the game of hockey. Thereafter, I wanted to learn and play this game professionally.”

Asked about the postponement of the WSH, the forward replied, “It would have been so much of fun to be playing in this cold weather, but we have to follow the decision. We’ll get more time to know each other now and make a good team till then. But the players, who are at the Olympic qualifier camp aren’t attending the practice camps here, so this isn’t our complete team. We are only trying to acquaint ourselves with the grounds and other players from outside India.”

Harinder Singh is of the view that WSH is not only a platform for the players, but also a good opportunity for the coaches here. “With this tournament, even we coaches will get an opportunity to learn better styles of play and game plans from players of other countries. Also, we hope that with this league, we can make hockey as big and famous as cricket that has only grown with the support of the IPL.”