World Series Hockey stars Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur have made a switch, signing on the dotted line for the Hockey India League. Besides the duo, senior players Rajpal Singh and Arjun Halappa, also a national selector now, have also been roped in along with several junior players.
Strikers Prabhjot and Thakur, both of whom played for India for almost a decade, were members of the title winning Sher-e-Punjab in the Indian Hockey Federation-backed WSH. The league, however, failed to evoke a positive response following the pull out of national team members, and “folded up” after the inaugural edition in 2012.
Said Prabhjot from Chandigarh, “We decided to sign for the HIL after receiving no response from WSH organisers about our contracts, or payment for the initial season. We won the title, but haven’t received any prize money so far.
“It is important to keep ourselves fit and we wish to compete at the highest level, and thus decided to sign for the HIL,” said Prabhjot, who recently turned out for Red White Munich club in the German league.
Said Halappa, “HIL is a top-level competition with big names from international hockey. Every player wants to test himself at that level.
“There is nothing much going on besides domestic hockey and it was wise to turn out for the HIL. We are hoping to be picked for next year’s competition,” he added.