The second coming of Sandeep Singh

Sandeep Singh

In today’s hockey, the final results are determined heavily by conversion of penalty corners. Floris Jan Bovelander and Sohail Abbas added a new dimension to the art of scoring from penalty corners, or PCs – the drag flick.

In the recently concluded HIL 2014, each team was armed with at least one PC specialist. Ashley Jackson and Gonzalo Peillat were part of Ranchi Rhinos and Kalinga Lancers. Four Indians in the same department donned the same role at the other clubs.

V R Raghunath was purchased by Uttar Pradesh Wizards as a specialist drag flicker. But he was given additional responsibility of the captaincy of the team, and that probably diminished his strength. Rupinder Pal Singh was the star of the Delhi Waveriders outfit. He finished the tournament with six goals, one fewer than his tally in the previous edition. Rupinder was everywhere in his matches and provided crucial passes form all positions. The conversion rate of both Raghunath and Rupinder was around 30% which is a bit low by international standards.

Gurjinder Singh was the choice of the Mumbai Magicians. Despite having Sandeep Singh in the squad in the previous edition (who ended up as the top scorer), the Magicians were condemned to finish last in 2013. The team gambled and replaced Sandeep with Gurjinder Singh this year. Gurjinder is only 19 years of age. In the Junior Hockey World Cup in Delhi, he was among the few players who made a niche for themselves. That was probably the reason Mumbai recruited him for a tough assignment. But choosing him proved to be a big mistake. The highly touted PC specialist could net only two goals throughout the tournament. The selection disaster cost the team heavily and it again failed to reach the knockout stage.

But one man stood taller than all the others. That man is Sandeep Singh. He scored 11 goals for the Jaypee Punjab Warriors and took the title of top scorer of the tournament for the second year in a row.

Sandeep was shown the door from the national team due to his habit of making some petty errors while defending. He was labelled as a man who concedes more goals than he scores. But in this edition of the HIL he emerged in a new avatar. He retained his strength of PC conversion and improved his deficiencies in defence. In the tournament, his success rate was 40%, which is thoroughly acceptable by international standards.

Sandeep hit the headlines when he scored two goals in match against Pakistan in the 2010 World Cup at Delhi. India, on the evening of the festival of Holi, went on to win against the arch rivals by the margin of 4-1. Sandeep scored a hat-trick against France at the same venue in the final of Olympics qualifier which gave India the ticket to London. That ended India’s 8-year long wait to participate in the Olympics.

When Sandeep was acquired by Punjab Warriors, several journalists asked Barry Dancer (coach of JPW) about seemingly strange selection choice. Everyone was apprehensive about Sandeep. But Barry made it clear that he wanted to see more goals in JPW’s account in each match. And as it turned out, the team scored 40 goals in the 2014 HIL – 10 more than any other team.

Converting penalty corners is getting tougher. Hi-tech video cameras and ultra slow motion video replays are helping teams study each drag flicker. Analysts are analysing the favourite, strongest and weakest areas of each drag flicker. That is why each club purchased a specialist drag flicker and a quality goal keeper in the squad. Undoubtedly, the performance of these two affected the results to a great degree. In a competitive international game, a goalkeeper makes about 10 saves per game. Teams are practising really hard to stop the bullets coming in at about 100 kph. The coaches and technical staff in the HIL were equipped with all the facilities to arrest the storm.

In this scenario, the success of Sandeep carries extra weight. He did his homework superbly. Against taller goalkeepers, he chose low ground shots. For shorter ones, he used his favourite area, the top left corner. Five-time FIH Player of the Year Jamie Dwyer praised him openly. stating that Sandeep has matured by leaps and bound in a year.

Sandeep turns 28 today – which is still a relatively young age – and he has Olympic experience too. It’s unlikely that national coach Terry Walsh will ignore him for long. So here’s wishing Sandeep the best of luck for his second coming.