Prabhjot Singh

Tribune News Service

While Olympian and Director Sports Pargat Singh will be the first honorary secretary of the unified Hockey Punjab, coach of 1992 Olympic hockey team Sukhvir Singh Grewal will be its director coaching.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was unanimously elected president of the unified Hockey Punjab some weeks ago, has not only named remaining office-bearers of the new association but also named some important panels, including coaching, selection and umpiring committees.

It may be pertinent to mention here that all four bodies controlling hockey in Punjab had merged to form a unified Hockey Punjab. This was done to comply with the directions of the International Hockey Federation to Hockey India to bring all hockey bodies under one umbrella with a single controlling authority of the game in the country. And Punjab has been one of first few states to follow the directive in toto.

Till now, the control of men hockey in the State remained vested solely with the Punjab Police. Colonel Balbir Singh Kular (retd) will head the women’s selection panel. Olympians Varinder Singh, Balbir Singh, Sukhjit Kaur and Baljeet Kaur will be the other members

Besides naming Pargat Singh as secretary, Sukhbir Badal has chosen the Director-General of Punjab Police Paramdeep Singh Gill and Bikramjit Singh Majithia as senior vice-presidents.

Hardeep Dhillon, now an Inspector-General of Police with the Punjab vigilance and himself a good hockey player, is named one of six vice-presidents. Others are Nirmal Amarjit Singh, Dr Manmohan Singh, Anupma Vasisth, Thakur Ude Singh of Namdhari Jatha, and N.R. Nayyar.

Sukhbir Singh Badal has tried to involve as many as Olympians and international players in the new body as possible.

The most important of the panels, the coaching panel, will have besides Sukhvir Singh Grewal, Olympians and international players like Ramandeep Singh Grewal, Ripudaman Singh, Gundeep Kumar and Jugraj Singh.

Olympian Surinder Singh Shokar will head the Selection Committee for men. Other members of the panel will be Olympian Mukhbain Singh, Baldev Singh and Col Harcharan Singh (retd).

Colonel Balbir Singh Kular (retd) will head the women’s’ selection panel. Olympians Varinder Singh, Balbir Singh Randhawa, Sukhjit Kaur and Baljeet Kaur will be other members of the committee.

International Rajbir Kaur Rai, Daljit Singh, Nitin Kohli and Dr Harmanpreet Kaur have been named joint secretaries while S.S. Kohli will be the treasurer. SS Saini of Ropar Hawks and Olympian Rupa Saini and Harpreet Singh have been made members of the executive committee.