Sometimes life gives you a chance to fulfill your dreams through someone else and when former Indian hockey player Harendra Singh got the opportunity to coach the Indian junior hockey team, he knew that it was the signal of life to make his dreams come true. He took up the challenge to train the team of world champions, something he couldn’t be a part of in his career.
There is a lot of similarity in the story of Harendra and Kabir Khan of the movie “Chak De! India”. After getting dropped from the national team, Harendra thought of training youngsters as he said,
“I told myself that day that I may never be an Olympian, but I will nurture Olympians and world champions the country will be proud of. I’ve never seen the Indian tricolour fly high at a World Cup, I want to see it this time. I’ve invested 22 years of my life to see an Indian team lift the World Cup.”
So in 2016, when Indian junior hockey team won the World Cup, he was the happiest person on the Earth. Harendra was appointed as the coach of junior side in April 2014; the most difficult challenge for him was to select the top 18 for representing India at the esteemed tournament and win the trophy for the nation. He started with a short speech, which was like this,
“Let’s be a team. Let’s help each other in getting for what we’ve all assembled here. We’ll not stop before we win the next world cup.”
There was visible improvement in the Indian junior hockey team after Harendra became their coach. Last year the team won Junior Asia Cup and a four-nation tournament that was held in Spain. The Indian junior team won the World Cup in Lucknow and brought an end to 15 yrs long wait.
This is what emotional Harendra said,
“I have not gone back from Lucknow empty-handed during my playing career. And I knew it from the word go that we’re going to lift this trophy. But more than my belief, the entire credit goes to my 18 boys who have stood with me during these two-and-a-half years.”
The importance of this victory can easily be understood by just giving a look at this photo of Harjeet Singh, the captain of the team.
Source: Twitter
Undoubtedly, it was the junior hockey team which won the World Cup but it was Harendra’s determination and hard work that made these players capable of playing against some of the best teams of the world and defeating them.
We wish that Harendra keeps on serving the nation and game of hockey in this manner and Indian team brings more trophies home.