Last time when Rajinder Singh (Sr.) was in news, he was seen
crying by the players from the flight back from Germany after he was sacked
with just 27 days to go for Athens Olympics. 2011 gives Rajinder Singh another
chance to be in news (for right reasons) after he was selected to coach Punjab
team in World Series Hockey.
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| Former Indian coach Rajinder Singh |
The period from 2002 to 2004 was very eventful for Indian
hockey. In April 2002 Rajinder Singh, former right back and PC expert of Indian
hockey team was appointed as coach of Indian senior team after he and his group
of young boys beat the world to win Junior World Cup for the first time.
Rajinder Singh is anything but an ordinary coach. In the era
where the coaches relied on scientific method of coaching, Rajinder Singh
relied on traditional pure attacking method of hockey to coach Indian team. His
coaching style and man management skills impressed everyone from players to IHF
who allowed him to select his own team.
Rajinder Singh had a good belief in youth and he did not
waste any time in introducing players who had won the Junior World Cup in the
Indian team. Gagajn Ajit Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Deepak Thakur, Jugraj Singh,
Viren Rasquinha and other players joined seasoned campaigners like Dhanraj
Pillay, Baljit Singh and Dilip Tirkey to form a team which won back to Asia
Cup, Afro-Asian Games, and four nations hockey tournament in Australia and
Germany.
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But not all stories have happy ending; he soon lost the
support of KPS Gill as he was fired in July 2004 with just 27 days to go for
Athens Olympics.
Rajinder Singh has a great opportunity to make his comeback
in the mainstream hockey with World Series Hockey. A coach who likes to work
with young players (he was coaching young players for SAI before WSH came) will
get an opportunity to coach Team Punjab which also boasts of good number of
junior players. With team Punjab he will work with Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur,
the players who were coached by Rajinder Singh right from their early days. The
young players in Punjab team will get a great chance to work with a coach who
has always promoted young players all his life.
The young players should relish this opportunity to work
with one of the best coach of Indian hockey who has developed some great
players during his days. With the man management skills and coaching methods of
Rajinder Singh, few more players will surely make it to Indian team.
Punjab has the most inexperienced team on the paper but
having a coach like Rajinder Singh would be great boon to the young players to
Punjab team. Expectations from Punjab will be high as always and coach like
Rajinder Singh will do his best to get the most of the bunch of young guys.
Rajinder Singh brought players like Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak
Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Jugraj Singh, Viren Rasquinha and others would went on
to become the backbone for Indian team and same will be expected from him in
World Series Hockey.
WSH team for Punjab is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Dinesh Ekka, Sukhjeet Singh
Defenders: Harpal Singh, Maik Gunther, Prabhdeep Singh,
William Xalco
Midfielders: Andreu Enrich, VS Vinaya, Mathias Vila, Imran
Khan
Forwards: Akashdeep Singh, Chris Seddon, Deepak Thakur,
Didar Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh, Inderjit Singh, Karamjit Singh,
Mandip Antil, Prabhdeep Singh, Steven Faaij, Tariq Aziz and Prabhjot Singh (C)
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