Singapore Sojourn: Titbits here and there
Part IV
1994 World Cup captain Jude Felix was spotted among the crowd couple of times. He runs hockey team in an Orphan’s school in Bangalore, he is happy about returning somethng back to his homeland. He came to watch Singapore team. He is not impressed with Indian team. “Nothing changed in the last 16 years since I left hockey”.
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Another personality who can join Jude in his frank opinion on India is Horst Wein, who crop up in some tournaments all of a sudden. He was conducting Fun Hockey workshop for coaches in Singapore. He said, “India plays the same hockey since 1950”. He is a non-stop talker, difficult to dodge.
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For the first five or six days, Indian senior team coach Harendera was also here, taking notes and discussing things as he often used to.
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James Chew is a Vietnamese. He says there is no hockey in his country, he is trying to start hockey in school teams. What is your interest in hockey?. “I play for Singapore Hockey League. I want to see hockey take root in Cho Minh city and then everywhere”.
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Jarnail Singh lived in Australia and Malaysia before settling down in the Island city. Now he is in the process of laying a private turf in Singapore. He played 1985 Junior World Cup for Malaysia and his captain then was Sarjit Singh, till recently Malaysian senior team coach.
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On the day England were badly defeated by India (9-0), a handful of English supporters were disappointed, but went near the fence and spoke a lot to the players. In fact, they are all parents of players. It is gathered parents of 12 players are here to support them. It is really a great number, in deed.
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Rim Voorghar, who covers for KNHB’s official website was seen wearing a Obama T Shirt the other day. “Seems you are a big fan of Obama”, I said. “Yes, ‘The Change Man’, the youngster said.
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After collecting a handbill I distributed, a gentleman called me and asked whether he acknowledge him. It was pleasant surprise that he turned out to be former India today journalist Rohit Brijnath whom I forgot to recognize in the first instance. He is working with Strait Times nowadays. Next day, he wrote a good piece on fall and fall of Indian hockey. He must have written on these lines umpteen time in the past as well, but it should be same with every writer of this country.
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Former Junior India coach PA Raphael is Singapore based. He is regular visitor to many of the matches. When I asked him about the Singapore team, he was frank enough to admit he did not follow them seriously as he was away from Singapore. He coached Singapore’s men and women national team for 7 years. He sports a French beard.
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Singapore Hockey Federation Secretary K. Rajaram is a busy man here. He is with the SHF in various capacities since the late 70s, and is holding this post for the second time in running. He says perhaps he is the oldest team member with his SHF boss Annabel Fennifather Dillon. She is also high-profile FIH Vice-President. Rajaram says receiving VIPs is a hard task in the whole affair of running the tournament.
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During a party on Thursday, an aged local Sardar approached me, anger writ large on his face. “Ask India not to come if they want to play like this, don’t hurt us this way”. It took some effort to get past him, who seemed to engage me endlessly. The problem here is how the teams would know in advance they will lose!
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A young ethnic Indian student was surprised seeing Indians in the United States team. “Uncle, see there are three of them”, he pointed out to me. I said “ thank you, but there are only two”. He returned during the halftime to tell me there are indeed three, not two. Yes, he was correct, there is three ethnic Indians in the States team.