Why the members of the Indian Men's hockey team are a fortunate lot

Apart from captaining the Indian Men’s hockey team, Sardar Singh is also employed with the Haryana Police

Indian men hockey players are perhaps the only ones to have secure, full-time government jobs, something that they richly deserve. Not sure how many hockey fans are aware of this. It may surprise many, but it is true that most top hockey players from Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium and England don’t quite have such job security. Most of these guys make their living by either working in private firms or make moolah by playing in the Euro Hockey League, Australian Hockey League, Malaysian Hockey League and of course, our won Hero Hockey India League.

Not just India, players of no other nations get any match fees for turning out for the country. A daily allowance is all players get for playing for the country. Other expenses including travelling, playing kit, food and lodging are taken care of, though at times, daily allowance comprises food expenses as well. Given this scenario, Indian hockey players must be feel ‘blessed’ that they have a secure governments jobs to fall back on and they can at least put in the hard yards with a free mind in their quest to raise their performance bar for the country.

Let us look at the Indian men hockey players (current lot and ones who played in last few years for the country) and where they are employed.

Sardar Singh – Haryana Police

Gurjinder Singh – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Birendra Lakra – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)

Harbir Singh Sandhu – – Punjab & Sind Bank

Rupinder Pal Singh – Indian Overseas Bank (IOB)

PR Sreejesh – Kerala State Government

Jasjit Singh Kular – Indian Railways

SV Sunil – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)

Danish Mujtaba – Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL)

Yuvraj Walmiki – Indian Railways

Gurbaj Singh – Punjab Police

Vokkaliga Raghunath – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Gurwinder Singh Chandi – ONGC

Manpreet Singh – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)

Chinglensana Singh – Indian Railways

Ramandeep Singh – Punjab & Sind Bank

Akashdeep Singh – ONGC

Nithin Thimmaiah – Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG)

Kothajit Singh – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Satbir Singh – Punjab & Sind Bank

Lalit Upadhyay – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)

Devinder Walmiki – Indian Railways

Dharamvir Singh – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Prabodh Tirkey – Air India

Malak Singh – Indian Railways

Diwakar Ram – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)

Harjot Singh – Punjab & Sind Bank

Amit Rohidas – Indian Railways

Roshan Minz – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Bharat Chetri – Canara Bank

Nikkin Thimmaiah – Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG)

SK Uthappa – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)

Talwinder Singh – Indian Railways

Sandeep Singh – Haryana Police

Shivendra Singh – Air India

Ignace Tirkey – Indian Army

Sarvanjit Singh – Punjab & Sind Bank

Tushar Khandker – Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL)