During a Chandigarh Comets practice session on Monday, Sukhwinder Singh Gabbar took a walk down the aisles of the Hockey Stadium in Sector 42 with friend and team mate Inderjeet Singh Chadha. While it was just another stroll for Chadha around his regular training ground, for Gabbar — the Canadian international — it was in fact a walk down the aisles of his nostalgia lane.
The flooding back of memories seem to do the 31-year-old player a world of good, for later in the evening, he rounded off the day with a brace in his side’s 4-3 win over Pune Strykers in the World Series Hockey game.
“It was here that I first started playing hockey,” said Gabbar. “So when we played our first match against Bhopal Badshahs, I couldn’t help but remember the times when I used to train here with the likes of Inderjeet Singh Chadha.” Chadha, of course, is now a team mate of his at Comets. But then, Gabbar moved to Vancouver in 1997, and Chadha went on to win the junior World Cup for India in 2001. “Back then, I called him from Canada and he and I couldn’t stop talking about our days in Chandigarh. Now, I’m glad to have returned.”
Gabbar was born in the Punjab village of Bahadur Hussain. While he did represent India in a school tournament — the Asian School Hockey Championship in 1994 — Gabbar’s move to Canada ensured that his dreams of representing the country of his birth ended prematurely. But his talent was spotted by Canada’s then coach Gene Muller, and ended up making his international debut at the age of 26.
“I hadn’t played hockey in some time when Muller insisted that I should give it another shot. I made my debut in 2007, we won the Pan American Games, and that pretty much cemented my spot,” shared Gabbar.
Back where it began: Gabbar returns home a winner
Nitin Kumar
A firefighter by profession, Gabbar also represented Canada in the 2010 World Cup and was part of the London Olympics qualifiers last month. “I did a firefighter’s course a couple of years ago in Vancouver and now I balance both professions,” he said.
While playing for Canada continues to remain his biggest ambition, a small part of Gabbar yearns to give something back to Punjab hockey. He said: “One day, I will return to India and find a coaching job.” But until then, the walk down memory lane should suffice well.
Delhi edge Mumbai
In Delhi, Wizards won a controversial game against Mumbai Marines 2-1 despite Mumbai dominating for a major part of the game. Delhi went ahead through Vikramjit Singh but Ajmer Singh slot home a rebound off Devender Walmiki’s penalty corner to level scores. Ajmer, however, ended up gifting Delhi their winning goal when he scored an own goal in the 35th minute, deflecting Shakeel Abbasi’s shot in.
Rajpal Singh earned Delhi a penalty stroke in the 67th minute after a solo run across the field, only to have the umpire overturn it on appeal. A minute later, Troy Sutherland got the equaliser for Mumbai, but this time Delhi appealed and the goal was disallowed.