Indian international Rupinder Pal Singh has come a long way since making his debut at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 2010 to becoming the most trusted wall at the back in the Indian national setup. It has been an eventful year for the 25-year old fullback, from not being selected for the Hockey World League semis in June last year to becoming the first name on the team sheet for the Rio Olympics in August 2016.
Rupinder took up hockey as his first choice sport at the tender of 7, mainly getting influenced by his cousin’s(Gagan Ajit Singh) prominent rise in the Indian set-up. He happily recalls the time when it was the former Indian forward and the Arjuna Award recipient Gagan Ajit Singh who motivated him to represent India at the international stage.
He told Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview, “I picked up hockey because of him, when we were small kids, I used to talk to him about the game, to see him representing the nation really motivated me. You can say I started playing hockey because of him only.”
Rupinder is fresh from converting 12 penalty corners for the Delhi-based franchise Delhi Waveriders at the recently concluded CIL Hockey India League and was thus adjudged as the ‘Player of the Tournament’; winning a cash prize of INR 50 Lakhs.
When asked if he would like to continue his fine goal scoring form into the Rio Olympics, the fullback replied, “Absolutely, I have gained a lot of confidence from the performances at the HIL, on the other hand, it has happened in the past, so a lot more hard work is needed in order to keep that level of performances going. I just want to continue performing well and be in a right frame of mind till the Mega event starts in Rio.”
We can beat anyone
The Blues are placed in a difficult pool consisting of Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Argentina and Canada in the Olympics. The fullback is wary of the tough competition that lies ahead but is confident of the team's ability to beat any team on any given day.
He added, “The main important thing is to take every game one by one. We will try to do that to the best at Rio. The teams in the group are higher ranking, but in today’s hockey, we have seen that anything is possible and we can beat on a given day. We have full faith in our coach’s training methods or in the strategies that he is making, we are confident of a good show at Rio.”
Rupinder struck his first hat-trick in the Tri-color against Great Britain at the 2011 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. At the conclusion of the tournament, he was announced as the joint top scorer alongside Pakistan international Sohail Abbas. He was also featured in the tournament’s All-Star Team as a recognition for his all-round display for the Indian national team.
He joyfully recollects the time when he was told be a defender on just the basis of his good height and said, “When you start hockey, people ask you be a defender in case you have a good height, the same thing happened with me. Then gradually the training started, and I got to know the basics of being a defender. When I went for the junior’s camp, Jugraj Singh started the procedures for the penalty corner training and that’s where I first learned the skill of drag flicking.”
“We have to be fully attentive while playing, can’t lose the sight of the ball even for a second”
The game of field hockey has seen a lot changes in the last two years or so, the new rule of introducing the self-pass has increased the speed of the game drastically, the long corners are being taken from the 25-yard line now rather than the sideline as it was 2 years ago. However, Rupinder assured that the teams have adapted well to the changes and said, “We have adapted to the new rules now, but we have to be fully attentive while playing, can’t lose the sight of the ball even for a second. Due to these new rules, the pace of the game has increased drastically in the last 2 years, anything can happen at any moment now.”
Both men and women national teams will be felicitated at the Hockey India 2nd Annual Awards. The awards will be given in recognition of the excellence in performance for 2015 and overall contribution to the game of hockey.
The second edition of the most coveted awards in Indian hockey carries a total prize money of over INR 2 crore. The awards will be held on 26 March 2016 in Bangalore which is also the current home ground of the national teams training at the SAI Centre.
