Junior stars rescue World Series Hockey with gritty play upfront

Indian national players came out strongly and staged a stop-work in the run up to the Delhi World Cup two winters ago.

Those in the seat of power threatened them openly on television. Their refrain: ‘We will field second string in the World Cup if our ultimatum is not accepted by the players’.

Camera crews landed in Lucknow where a development team was in a camp, and was to go Dhaka for the South Asian Federation Games.

Senior players in the team like V. Raghunath, Ajitesh Roy and others came out openly in support of seniors. They asserted a firm No, ‘we will never desert our seniors, we are also with them’. This was a rare symphony between the national stock players like of which was never seen before.

Their interviews to the leading national channels on these lines, open deviation, turned out to be the turning point of that stop work phase.

Now, on the eve of World Series Hockey, its again junior players who assume a rescue mission.

Administration was both adamant and aggressive enough to shut the doors of WSH for the senior national team. Its nobody’s secret given the option everyone of would have lined up before the Nimbus.

Without current stars the WSH lost some sheen, but the fact of the matter is if you leave out couple of players this country hardly knows other players however big stars they are for the small hockey fraternity.

At the same time, players who were part of Australia tour including Hockey 9s, Asian Champions Trophy and others even in the standbye list of Delhi Olympic Qualifiers joined WSH. This list includes Bharat Chhikara, Mandeep Antil, Rajpal Singh, Manjeet Kullu, Ravi Pal Singh, Arjun Halappa etc.

But the real talents that hold and propel WSH are junior stars. They surprised the stand with their gritty display. Though many of us know their talent, and had already figured in many junior national camps, and are part of many Grade I tournaments in the domestic circle, public get to know them only now, courtesy Live telecast of WSH.

Devinder Walmiki, Harmanpreet Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Harpreet Singh, Gurjinder Singh…the young talents list goes on.

Namdhari’s Gurjinder Singh, who was supposed to lead the Indian side for the November Sultan of Johor Cup is turning out to be livewire of Chandigarh Comets, who are showing vast signs of improvement after losing first two matches.

Devinder Walmiki, younger brother of Yuvraj Walmiki, is setting the pace and thus the lucky course of Mumbai Marines. So much so, the fortunes of Mumbai marines soley depend on him despite the presence of host of internationals. He not only set the pace with penetrating run downs but also very good at drag flicks. He has already won the man of the match awards twice.

Vikas Pillay too is weaving moves for Pune Strykers, firmly behind the team’s success or failure, while the likes of Himranjeet Singh, our successful goalie in Johor Bahru junior engagement giving out their best.

Harpreet Singh, who was captain at Johor Cup, is lending big hand in helping out Sher-e-Punjab, has already come out with some good penalty corner conversions.

But for these youngsters, and those who were till recently in the national side, the WSH would have not produced the kind of intense matches it ultimate did, and doing after 12 days since it was put on turf and on television on the last day of February.