Sardar Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sardara Singh

• Sardar Singh is one of most renowned field hockey players in India. He is best known for his skills as a midfielder.

• He was born in Sant Nagar village under Sirsa district in Haryana.

• He belonged to a poor family. His father, Gurnam Singh, was an RMP and earned ₹1000-2000 per month which was hardly enough for his family.

• When Sardar was 12 years old he demanded hockey shoes worth ₹1000. His mother spent the whole day convincing him to give up the sport saying that the sport was not lucrative enough.

• His family is the follower of  Namdhari sect of Sikhs. Back in past, they had some unproductive, arid land and there was no other source of income for the family. His father even tried his luck in Bangkok but could not earn much so he returned home. ^[3]Times of India

• His mother said that he was so passionate about hockey that he used to sneak away on his father’s cycle in the afternoon to practice hockey at the ground. She also said that Sardar’s passion for hockey was fuelled by watching his elder brother Didar Singh, who has also played at the national level.

• His guru Jagjit Singh Ji recognised his potential and admitted him to a hockey academy in Ludhiana.

• He is the youngest Captain of the Indian National Hockey Team.

• He maintains that it was hockey that saved him from becoming a drug addict.

• He made his captaincy debut at Sultan Azlan Shah Cup held in 2008.

• He captained the national team for eight long years from 2008 to 2016 before handing the responsibility to P. R. Sreejesh.

• He has been part of India’s important feats in the past, having won silver medal at 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, two Asia Cup gold medals (in 2007 and 2017) and a silver (2013), gold at the 2014 Asian Games, bronze at the World League Final in Raipur, 2015 and silver Medal at the 2011 Champions Challenge.

• After he was dropped from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games squad due to fitness reasons, he worked hard on his fitness and became part of the national team for the Champions Trophy, where India won a silver medal.

• In the Hockey India League, Delhi Waveriders bought him for ₹42.49 lakhs.

• In the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India won the silver medal in his leadership.

• In a shocking turn of events, Sardar Singh announced his retirement from the international hockey in September 2018. ^[4]NDTV

• He blamed his former coach, Marijne Sjoerd for his retirement before the 2020 Olympics which are to be held in Tokyo, Japan. ^[5]THE TIMES OF INDIA

• He has a cumulative experience of 19 years and he has been credited for bringing the Indian Hockey back on track from the deep slumber. In his entire career, Sardar has played more than 350 matches and scored more than 50 goals.

• His brother Didar Singh is a drag flick specialist and he has also played for the Indian team and Haryana state team.

  

• He is a fitness freak and regularly posts about fitness on his Facebook account. In Yo-Yo Test, he scored more points than Virat Kohli. He got a score of 21.4 eclipsing the Virat Kohli’s score of 19, whereas the average score of Indian National Cricket team is 16.

• After retirement from international hockey, he said that he plans to coach premier European club teams after taking permission from Hockey India and Haryana government.

• Sardar Singh made his first Punjabi Music Industry debut by featuring in the song Gallan Karariyan sung by veteran Punjabi singer Hardeep Singh.