Hockey: Sardar Singh is India's midfield maestro

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Following India’s eighth-place finish at the 2010 Hockey World Cup at home, the then-coach Jose Brasa had put up a chart outside his hotel room.

It depicted the team’s performance with individual evaluation of each of the 18 players — the parameters were form, fitness, ability to dodge and intercept, number of saves, one touch passes and even the balls wasted, among many others.

The results made for an interesting reading. Midfielder Sardar Singh had topped the list with maximum points, followed by forward Tushar Khandker. The difference in points between the two though was more than almost 80 per cent, followed by the rest of the team members.

The class and quality that Sardar brings to the team remains the highlight of Indian hockey in the last five years. From a youngster who wanted to settle down in the US to a heart of Indian midfield, Sardar has been the epitome of a modern day player.

The opponents watch in awe when he dribbles or dodges, while his team-mates often fall back on him during difficult times. His uncanny ability to control the midfield single-handedly makes him indispensable.

Ask Sardar and the shy midfielder from Sant Nagar, near Sirsa, attributes it to sheer practice. “People often say that I am special, they say that there’s no other player in India like me, but I do not believe in anything like that. All that matters for me is hard work.

“Those who have seen me train know that I am always the last one to leave the ground. Even after the entire lot of 50 boys leave, I spend an extra 30-45 minutes every day, each session. However simple that may sound, but to me, that is the road to success. All of us know our weaknesses, and I work on mine every single day,” said Sardar.

Substitutions are an integral part in modern hockey, and while most teams have a fixed plan put up in the dug-out — that specifies when a player gets needs to be changed — there is none ever for Sardar.

“Substitutions are based on science. Besides match situation, they depend on the chemical compositions in a human body that demand a player to be changed after five or six minutes due to fatigue,” said team’s exercise physiologist David John.

But with Sardar on the field, every theory goes to the bin. “I just cannot substitute him as he brings so much value to the team and works tirelessly. Most matches, he plays for more than 60 minutes,” said John.

India’s campaign at the Olympic qualifiers beginning this week will depend a lot on Sardar’s form and fitness, and the 25-year old — who is likely to support the defence too in the six-nation event — asserts that the team “will not let the Olympic berth slip this time”.

“There is so much focus on the qualifiers, but I believe that is not enough. True, we need to qualify, but as a nation with immense talent, and as responsible players, we should think about doing well at the Olympics too. We have to think big and believe in our abilities,” said Sardar, a member of the FIH’s all star team since the last two years.