Times of India: Manpreet Singh, Indian Hockey Captain: India is big enough for cricket and hockey to co-exist
Abhimanyu Mathur
Hockey is a sport Indian didn’t just dominate but virtually reigned supreme in. However, that was decades ago. Emergence of other sports and a decline in results in international competitions relegated hockey to a secondary sport in the country for several years. However, of late, both the men’s and women’s national sides have looked to recover some of hockey’s lost glory in India with impressive results. Both the teams won their respective Asia Cups and the men won a bronze in the World Hockey League Finals last year. The two captains, Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal, were in Delhi recently for an event to announce the teams’ new sponsor, the state of Odisha, and spoke to us about the significance of this year for Indian hockey.
The recent positive results have earned the sport newer fans. Rani says, “The players are better motivated now. Earlier, there was a feeling ki kiske liye khel rahe ho. But when people support you, you want to push that much harder.” Manpreet adds, “The last year was good but that needs to continue in 2018 too for the fanfare to sustain.” With three major tournaments lined up this year, 2018 is the make or break year for Indian hockey. Rani elaborates, “2018 is a very crucial year for Indian hockey, since we have the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games, and the Asian Games this year. We are in good spirits after last year’s performances and we want to repeat that this year and get medals in all major tournaments.”
Rani adds, “I do believe that if we are able to do that, the graph of women’s hockey will go up. This will empower more girls to think they can take up hockey, so it’s a big responsibility for us to do well.”
It has often been said that cricket’s rise in India coincided with hockey’s decline and the former’s dominance in the Indian sports scene has been attributed to hockey ‘not getting its due share’. However, Manpreet disagrees with this notion. “Cricket is also our sport. Whenever, the cricket team wins, we also get happy because India has won. Whenever we win a big tournament, they congratulate us on social media. Fans might think there is animosity between the two games but they should see how we appreciate each other. India is big enough for cricket and hockey to co-exist,” says Manpreet.
Due to his on-field successes and the fact that he is the Indian skipper, Manpreet is often compared to another Indian captain – Virat Kohli. The 26-year-old laughs off such comparisons, saying, “Someone recently said I stay calm like MS Dhoni. Then, some say my game is similar to Virat Kohli’s. They are much bigger players than I am. I get to learn a lot from them, to be honest. They are legends who have won a lot of laurels for India, so I always try to learn from them, the way they conduct themselves, how they approach their game, and their focus on fitness.”