Youth can be a great advantage in sport, especially in a country like India, where any athlete who achieves success is scrutinised in every possible manner, thereby sometimes taking the joy out of an otherwise fantastic profession. Harjeet Singh, the 20-year-old from Punjab and captain of India’s junior men’s hockey team, is a delightful manifestation of the abovementioned phenomenon.
Set to lead India at the 2016 Junior Hockey World Cup, Harjeet Singh is probably not aware of the crown that he is about to wear in the coming week. Captaining the Indian hockey team, in any sport, is nothing short of Mission Colossus but the youngster from Kurali is not worried about any of it. Speaking to Sportskeeda a few days ahead of the Junior Hockey World Cup, Harjeet revealed how he was working hard to not let his country down.
“We are highly focused on delivering the title for India and our coach helps us in working towards it. There is a lot of planning that has gone on during the preparation for this tournament and we want to win it for India. However, it is important for us to not get carried away. We will be looking to stick to our plans and what the coach tells us,” he said.
India to lock horns against Canada on the opening day of the Junior Hockey World Cup
Harjeet is not new to playing in big tournaments, having already played for the national team, and is one of the most promising young players in the country at the moment. He won the Jugraj Singh Upcoming Player of the Year award and has garnered praised from national team coach Roelant Oltmans, who believes “Harjeet is a special player and has immense potential to become a top star. He will play a huge role in India’s campaign at the Junior World Cup.”
For an outsider, being a part of India’s junior hockey team might not be a big thing but these days the rigor for players start from an early age. “We need to be very disciplined and follow fixed routines. Eating right becomes a big part of our daily life and I avoid fast food because it affects fitness. Also, apart from training, we watch a lot of videos of opponents and a great deal of analysis is done to help us,” he says.
Growing up in Punjab in the 21st century is not an easy thing for a youngster who wants to play sport, given the state’s war with drugs and thousands of kids falling prey to it. Luckily for India, Harjeet Singh, a truck driver’s son, saw these things from a distance and decided to maintain status quo. “All of us in Punjab know about this problem and have witnessed it first hand. However, I was told about the problem at an early age and even when I saw people doing things, I did not go and consume (drugs). I was pretty lucky to stay away from any of this (drug problems),” Harjeet told Sportskeeda.
Harjeet Singh, unfortunately, is an aberration in modern day Punjab, which has produced some top class sportsmen in Indian history. The youngster got enrolled at the academy in Kurali at an early age and has been playing there since. Harjeet idolises national team player Manpreet Singh and wished to play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In his free time, Harjeet prefers watching circle style kabaddi with his father and has attended several tournaments in Punjab.
India are definitely contenders for the 2016 Junior Hockey World Cup but captain Harjeet Singh knows that the “European” teams will be hard to beat. “Coach has told us about how good the European teams, especially Germany and Australia. We will be looking to take things match-by-match and see how far we can progress,” he said. The insight of a modern day young athlete can sometimes be a terrific indication of how much sport has progressed in the country.
The last time India won the Junior Hockey World Cup was in 2001 and that bunch of youngsters included Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh. Can Harjeet Singh take India to a win in 2016 and possibly usher a new golden generation? We will have to wait and watch.
