March 6 2007: Satinder Sharma is not a run of the mill umpire. He is the only Indian to have umpired in the final of the elite Champions Trophy tournament. He is on the Olympic and World Cup panel of umpires, where India drew blank till the State Bank of India Officer from Chandigarh came on the scene.
But see what happened to the numero uno of our umpires in the third final of the just concluded Premier Hockey League?
A section of rogue Sher–e-Jallandar team (most of them are from the notorious Punjab police team, who have a proud (!) history of misbehaving with officiating umpires) not only jostled and pushed the umpire in question but also chose to chase him with venomous intent. The honest but brave Sharma did the best of a person in such an intimidating situation; without uttering any bad word or intimidating body language he withdrew honorably from the scene and refused to continue umpiring further.
Having watched the whole horrid sequence – goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh started it all, then captain Kalwalpreet Singh intensified it, only to be followed by intentional body thrash by Tejbir Singh — repeatedly on television, it is obvious the said players were openly and brazenly behaving in a manner unbecoming of players — and much against all established norms of sportsmanship.
However, the Organizers, IHF Officials, IHF umpiring committee Chairman, and many other IHF cohorts (who always wield enormous powers, unconstitutionally) were seen cajoling shattered Sharma to officiate again. He stood like a rock of Gibraltar and refused to budge.
It could easily be made out that no attempt was made to send a strict message to erring players, instead the reserved umpire was pressed into action. Perhaps there appeared an urgency to continue the match, satisfy the crowd and complete the formalities. Though this anxiety could be understood to some extent from the organizers point of views, the discipline factor was given a goodbye.
That in the end not even a temporary suspension was given out despite three players openly physically abusing an umpire of Satinder Sharma’s reputation (which is global) speaks for what ails Indian hockey.
The mere fact that the video umpire upheld the decision of Satinder Sharma later, thereby facilitating the remaining 10-odd minute of game to be finished, proved the veracity of Sharma’s decision.
As far as this writer is concerned, the IHF failed to utilize the opportunity to send a stern message to the erring team. IF they have the vision and keep hockey’s interest in mind, any of the following recourse should have been acted upon:
1. The match should have been abandoned then and there and the Steelers declared the winners
2. The erring players should have been shown red card minimum.
3. A situation should have been made wherein Satinder Sharma should have continued the match.
4. Tournament Director should have issued suspension of team for next PHL, though for some it might look harsh.
Unless the IHF learns to respect its own umpires, there is no way Indian players will have necessary discipline to win the confidence of umpire on the field in the international matches.
As of now, my sympathies go to upright Satinder Sharma, who has done an extraordinary job in officiating in the PHL for the last one match. It is worth mentioning here that two Malaysian umpires were posted for the first of the three PHL finals. They could not control the match, and a Pakistan player even commented that the match was not under their control and looked like a kabadi match!
And then both Virender Bahadur and Satinder Sharma were posted for the next two finals. They did their job well till the losing Punjab players thought otherwise.