HARDIK SINGH: Meteoric Rise

The crowd was hardly countable, but they were applauding loudly.  Those fans who lined up the  turf barricade to watch the Indian colts take on the Junior England team, were treated to a visual pleasure  as some of coach Harendra Singh’s boys were facing the well-built and well-oiled English team at Bishem Abbay, a hockey facility near London.

One boy among them was attracting them often with his masterly at midfield, as attacking mode. Avtar Singh Bhurji, a former Uganda hockey Olympian but now resides in UK, sees in him a bright future and trying to invite the player to his Club/house after the match. He was among the many there the boy has won them over with his energy and enterprise .

He was shy. Was sitting in a corner when the Indian Gymkhana Club organized a grand lunch in one of the rest days at London.

When almost all of the team members made it to the Junior World Cup a few months later, he was not lucky.

“These 22 boys are so talented that I will have extreme  difficulty to pindown my final 18” said Harendra Singh often during the tour.

Dropping of Hardik Singh, who hails from a hockey provenance in Punjab called Khusropur, which produced triple Olympian Haripal Kaushik and others, must have been a painful exercise.

That year in 2016 Harendra’s boys created an indelible mark by winning the Junior World Cup at Lucknow. But Hardik was left to play at U-18 Asia Cup which he won. His colleagues won Jr World Cup, but he was content in celebrating in a small way at Dhaka. At Dhaka Sub-Jr Asia Cup, he was declared best player of the tournament, but it was small consolation for a player who dreamt big.

Hardik certainly had a painful 2017. As fate would have it, there came a situation that coach Harendra Singh who was swapped with Sjored Marinje, returned to men’s side.

Though disheartened, young Hardik  Singh was in the camp among the core group. His time has come.

When his time came, it came with a bang. It was not a run of the mill test series but a serious tournament in Asia, the Asian Champions Trophy. A silver was promptly won. Since then Hardik Singh’s hockey carrier took an enviable  turn. He missed the Jakarta Asiad shortly but not the World Cup at Bhubaneswar.

Is it not irony a player who could not make it to the Junior World Cup 18 months ago, could count for the Senior World Cup.  For an event even the likes of Sardar Singh could not make it!

Since then, there was no stopping of the midfielder. He was a fixture since those Bhubaneswar days.

Azlan Shah Cup, Series against top notch teams like Australia and Belgium, Olympic Qualifying Series and then the much-awaited Pro-League.

His rise is meteoric. He is a long term material under the watchful eyes of the latest foreign coach Grahm Reid.