Editorial: The leadership of the 'Singhs': Now it's time to pay attention to the 'Kouras' too

The leadership of the 'Singhs': Now it's time to pay attention to the 'Kouras' too Editorial: India's becoming the Asia Cup hockey champion amidst the devastation caused by floods and rains is a good news. In the final of this championship played in Rajgir, the pilgrimage site of Buddhism in Bihar, India defeated South Korea by 4-1 goals. This is the fourth time that India has become the Asia Cup champion. South Korea has won this prestigious trophy the most five times, but despite being the champion last time (2022), they could not give the Indian team a competitive fight in the final.

Earlier, in the Super-4 stage of this championship, the match between India and Korea was tied 2-2 goals. In fact, during that match, India was trailing by one goal till the last quarter and had to fight hard to equalize. Given the background of that match, it was expected that the final would be very tight, but it remained one-sided. In fact, the winning streak that India created thanks to the goal scored by Sukhjit Singh in the very first minute of the match, uprooted the smoothness of the Korean game. India scored a goal in each quarter of the match and their runs towards the Korean 'D' kept the audience glued to their seats. In fact, the quality of play that India had displayed in the two matches played against Malaysia and China during the Super-4 stage before the final, had given the hockey experts the impression that winning the final would not be a difficult task for India.

This impression raised by them proved to be correct. India also qualified for the World Cup to be held next year by becoming the Asia Cup champion.

Playing in front of its own people in its own country, if it is beneficial in terms of motivation, can also prove to be a losing deal in terms of psychology. The burden of expectations often makes players rush or make mistakes. The constant encouragement from around the field sometimes creates a tendency for players to overwhelm. Due to such a tendency, mistakes like not passing on time or trying to score goals alone are often seen. But during their last three matches in the Asia Cup, the Indian team did not let such a tendency rise. Due to this, every player in the opponents' 'D' who was in a better position to score goals kept getting passes. That is why 10 players were included in the list of goal scorers. Among them... Forward Abhishek Nain and many 'Singhs', the names of Amit Rohidas, Sanjay Kumar, Rajkumar Pal and Shilanand Lakra are also worth mentioning. Among the 'Singhs', only Jarmanpreet and Rajinder were such Punjabi players who did not score any goals.

It is a different matter that the goal scorers kept getting a lot of help from them in the form of beautiful and precise passes.

The real identity of Indian hockey has been Punjabi, especially Sikh players. It is the same now. Harmanpreet, Manpreet, Mandeep, Germanpreet, Sukhjit, Hardik, Jugraj are familiar names to us. This time Dilpreet and Rajinder have also joined the same ranks. Gurjant was not included in the team for this Asia Cup, but there should be no doubt about his return to the team soon. Despite the fact that ‘rolling substitution’ i.e. the rule of constantly changing players playing on the field has now become the mainstay of the momentum in hockey, whenever there are not at least 7 ‘Singhs’ on the field, the clouds of danger start hovering over the Indian goal.

This analysis is by (former Australian player and now eminent analyst) Jamie Dwyer. Like the ‘Singhs’, the ‘Kouras’ were also the lifeblood of Indian women’s hockey till five years ago. But after the Shahbad Markanda hockey centre fell into disrepair, the influx of ‘Kauran’ from Haryana into Indian women’s hockey has now become negligible. Currently, the ‘Kauran’ representation in the Indian team playing the Women’s Hockey Asia Cup in Guangzhou (China) is making a comeback. In this context, it may seem futile to expect much from the government because even goodwill often falls victim to red tape there.

But the non-governmental sports academies, which are working hard to promote men’s hockey in Punjab, must be appealed to that they should give as much attention to the sports training of boys at the grassroots level as they are giving to the sports talent of girls. In this, not only will Punjab be better, but Indian women’s hockey will also get a unique identity.

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