Indian hockey was down and out in the period of 2007-2012 and the sport was not much hyped as much as cricket, badminton or other Olympic sports were, the prominent reason being the disappointing performance of the Indian team. Since then there has been one man who is leading the team and that is Sardar Singh. The Haryana lad inspired the team courtesy of his midfield brilliance to lead his side to victories on his own mastery.
There used to be a time when Sardar won matches on his own playing for Delhi Waveriders in Hockey India League but then the growing age and slowing pace didn’t go his way and the veteran from Haryana retired from the game. India are slated to play the hockey world cup this month where Sardar could have brought his experience into play that MS Dhoni brings for the Indian cricket team, but his shocking retirement has left a big gap in the mid-field and also the team without an able leader.
Sardar recently opened about his retirement and said that former men’s hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne and high performance director David John didn’t behaved nicely with him that may be reason of his retirement.
David John and Sjoerd Marijne taking down the career of a veteran
“I was called to his (David John’s) room just before the match against Pakistan in Asia Cup. The coach (Marijne) was also there. He (John) said I committed mistakes and I was playing a lot of individual game. Just before an important match I was called to tell this. You could imagine how I was feeling, he could have told me later,” Sardar said.
Sardar was dropped from the Commonwealth games squad but later made a return to the squad for Champions trophy and later in the Asian Games. He was eventually dropped from the Asian champions trophy squad after which he decided to “quit”
“I was dropped from important tournaments, the World Hockey League and Commonwealth Games. I thought I will be brought back, I was sent with a junior team in Malaysia. I slowly began questioning myself what is going on. After the Asian Games, I was thinking of continuing till the 2020 Olympics. I was very fit, one of the fittest in the team. But then I decided to quit (after being dropped again),” he said.
Sardar also claimed that he was not told the reason of why he was left out of the team.
