Diwakar Ram is a house hold name in Indian hockey’s vast family. The 20 years old youngster from Gorakhpur is second son of Inderjeet Ram, a Railway employee, crazy hockey fan.
Its father Inderjeet Ram, who succeeded in sowing his hockey interest on his elder son Prabhakar Ram. Prabhakar excelled in hockey at national level , then landed in a job in Indian Air Force. Later, it was the turn of his second son Diwakar Ram, who took to hockey, and then made it big on the national stage. The youngster lived upto the dream of his father, and is now a proud member of the home World Cup team.
Diwakar used to go to the Railway stadium (North Eastern Railway, Gorakhpur) with his father for training every evening. He picked up the basics very fast. In 2002, he got selected for the Sports Hostel at Rampur, where he honed his skills for next two years. Then he made it to the famous Sports Hostel Lucknow, where he stayed another two years before joining lucrative Indian Oil Team on stipend basis. Those days Indian oil team was full of stars and survival was performance based only.
With a decent performance at the junior national Championship in 2007 at Chennai, Diwakar Ram got selected one of the 45 prabables for the Junior India camp for DKV Trophy, held at Monchengladbach, Germany, in Aug’2007.
During the camp coach A.K.Bansal invited sensational drag flicker Jugraj Singh to give the finer tips of penalty corner to Diwakar Ram, which proved quite effective as Diwakar emerged the top scorer of the tournament I a field consisting of such stalwart teams as Holland, Germany, and Spain. As the saying goes on “good start is half done”, Diwakar proved it more than that.
Diwakar proved again his worth in Malaysia in the 8-nation cup. He was declared the best player of the tournament; he doubled it up with the top scorer as well. Here the colts won the silver in a dream run.
Many claim his selection for the 2008 Azlan Shah tournament is a turning point in his career. He scored four goals there, besides ably managing the defence . His classic conversion of a penalty corner against Pakistan is thing to be relished for long. He got, though less the chances at penalty corners, as another stalwart Sandeep Singh was also in the team.
The same year, Diwakar ram had a wonderful Junior Asia Cup at Hyderabad. “I still count it the best tournament of my career”. He was virtually the leader of the team, again top scorer, he single handedly pulled the out of defeat to gold, when it trailed 0-2 deficit to 3-2 win in the finals.
After junior Asia Cup, after those great timely goals that helped India to retain the title it won at Karanch in 2004, Diwakar was elevated to captaincy. He also lived upto the confidence reposed, and led India to spirited wins in Argentina test series, to get Silver medal in Australian Youth Olympic festival , or another Silver in 4-Nation Cup at Johor Bahru. Junior World Cup was big time in Singapore last year, but it was a disappointment.
The memorable movement of Diwakar’s career came when Asian Hockey Federation declared him the Asian player of the year -2009.
Now Diwakar Ram has established himself in the Senior India team also. Spanish Coach developed full confidence upon him, not only as drag flicker but also as a dependable deep defender too.
An officer with ONGC, Diwakar Ram is an eye catcher on the turf, and those feats are again in full flow at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.