Rotating captains

It has been a time-honoured practice to bestow the captaincy of a hockey team on its seniormost player, or someone who is thought to be its best player. But it may no longer be so if coach Harinder Singh, now given charge of preparing the national hockey team, could have his way. Harinder has been credited with the view that any player could be assigned the responsibility of captaining the team provided if he has the ability to inspire the team or can set a good personal example.

It is no secret that in modern hock ey the strings are pulled from outside the pitch by coaches, and a captain has no significant role to play. Wanderer recalls how, way back in the 1984 Olympic soccer qualifiers, the Indian teams Yugoslav coach Ciric Milovan appointed eight different captains for eight different matches. As in hockey , a soccer teams captain is different from the ten other players on the pitch by the armband that he wears. He is the person the umpire or referee summons when the riot act has to be read.

Blessing in disguise

A VIP helicopter raises dust as it lands close to the pitch. It has brought the young sports-loving area MP, Navin Jindal, to Shahbad, now famous for its girls hockey team. The presence of four former Olympic hockey stalwarts, Cdr Nandi Singh, Balbir Singh, Harbinder Singh and S Dung Dung, are additional objects of curiosity.

The forced shifting of the Jawaharlal Nehru girls hockey tournament from Delhi’s Shivaji Stadium, now being renovated in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, has come as a blessing in disguise for the people of Haryana. They came by tractor, trolley or any other available mode of transport to watch the matches.

For the Shahbad girls — the ninth triumph in 12 competitions — it was particularly satisfying to perform for the first time in front of their own home fans. As for the officials of the Nehru hockey tournament society, they were no less pleased with the conduct of the event.