His success has been stupendous, but for a large chunk of Indians, though, are oblivious of that. How many of us are aware of the tremendous stride the 42-year old State Bank of India officer from Chandigarh, Satinder Kumar, had made, and is making, on the umpiring terrain like no other Indian in the recent times ever could. Before the genial
Satinder dawned on the scene and entered the Olympics umpiring at Athens, the great hockey country India could not have their whistleman in the previous two Olympics. He certainly filled in a vacuum that had been created due to lack of vision by the Indian hockey administrators. Needless to say how their lack of interest, lack of knowledge how important it is for the sports to have worthwhile umpires in its rank has done enormous damage to the game.
And thankfully, there is some awakening now what with Delhi based Gian Singh Memorial Society proposing to organize a function to honour Satinder Sharma, our only man in the elite FIH’s World Cup Panel of umpires.
Kuku Walia, the president of the Society, himself an umpire and on the Umpires’ Manager panel, says his effort is to honour umpire Satinder and a couple of others on coming 18th Nov, is just to recognize their progress.
Satinder Sharma, who has officiated in nearly 90 international matches and will soon be eligible to acquire the dream Golden Whistle – it is given on reaching the magical 100 caps — will be honoured along with a couple of others.
Varanasi based Virender Bahadur Singh, who has his umpiring numbers close to 50, Raghu Prasad, another up and coming umpire with nearly 50 caps, Karnataka’ Anupama, women umpire in her 30th cap, will also be honoured during the gathering.
In the last two years, Walia has been giving Rs.5000 each year for an outstanding umpire in the Senior Nehru Cup. He says the present gathering is logical extension of his gesture to bring performing umpires to the public knowledge and get them a bit of his own recognition.
On his part, Satinder Sharma expressed his appreciation for Walia’s gesture.
Satinder Sharma, after representing Chandigarh State team in the Senior Nationals for about ten times and with the personally satisfying Bronze at the 1994 National Games, turned to umpiring to quench his hockey thirst. And it proved to be a turning point in his career.
He made his international umpiring debut at the 2000 Akber el Yom Cup in Cairo; since then did not look back. His climb up in the ladder was measured and in keeping resonance with his competency. His career reached the pinnacle when Umpires’ Manager Clive McMurray put him for the 2006 Champions Trophy final match. “Really I was shocked, of course pleasantly” was what Satinder had to say about the great day. No other Indian ever umpired a Champions Trophy final.
Satinder gives credit to some of the umpiring seniors and Umpire Managers like Clive McMurray, with whom he officiated in the KL World Cup, Ton Prior, and Peter van Ruth for their timely advice and guidance which paved way for his steady progress.
Satinder has so far umpired in three Champions Trophy Tournaments, Two World Cups, besides many other tournaments including the final of the Madrid Olympic Qualifier and 2002 Asiad. .
He will be our lone man at KL 2007 Champions Trophy too.
However his name missing often at Asia and Commonwealth Games levels point to the fact that he is not in the favoured list of IHF, which has a say in nominating umpires for these continental events. However, he figures prominently in the books of those who count at global level is what delight the pure hockey lovers.
Gian Singh Memorial Society seeks to perpetuate the memory of late Gian Singh, who was considered the ultimate in the hockey rules. He umpired at two Olympics; authored a variety of hockey books dealing with rules, quiz and coaching. Kuku Walia is his only son.
Photo Captions:
Top: Satinder Sharma, inching towards golden whistle
Middle: Satinder Sharma umpiring a crucial match between Germany and Holland<
Bottom: Gian Singh (centre, standing row) with the Thailand National Hockey team which he trained for the 1970 Asian Games.