Sardar’s signing for HC Bloemendaal should inspire more Indians to play in European leagues

Sardar Singh

Hockey has indeed changed over the years. The European teams are ruling the roost. Save for Australia, no one non-European side have looked like dominating the European outfits.

The fast, rugged European style of hockey is replete with strong running, high focus on deflections inside the ‘D’, fast-paced action with less of dribbling. The success of the European teams over the years have made it mandatory for players of non-European sides to rub shoulders with them regularly so that they know what to expect to counter them.

The highly competitive European league can be a great platform for non-European players to knows the ins and outs of their tactical prowess. One must say that Indian men’s hockey team captain Sardar Singh’s signing for iconic Dutch hockey club HC Bloemendaal should warm many Indian hearts.

More significantly, Sardar can gain a lot tactically playing in the Netherlands and can pass on the same to his team-mates when he wears the national jersey. There has always been a talk of the need for Indian players to play in the European hockey leagues and Sardar playing for one of the oldest Dutch hockey club should be a motivation pill for other national players to follow suit.

Think about the sight of talented guys like Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Singh, SV Sunil, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, or even drag-flickers Vokkaliga Raghunath and Rupinder Pal Singh playing in the European leagues and you can be rest assured that these blokes will return as even better hockey players than what they are now.

Of course, money in the European leagues is quite attractive – Sardar will be paid 50,000 euros for one season (approximately 45 lakhs), which is more than what he got in the Hockey India League auction.

Remember Michael Nobbs advocating the need for Indian players to play in European leagues. He did not mince words and once stated that there is a yawning gap in the standards of Indian domestic hockey and Australia or European club hockey. The Aussie was categorical in saying that any top Indian club will struggle to beat a first division Australian or European club.

Given this context, one hopes more Indian players feature in the European leagues.

As for Sardar Singh, he could not have asked for a better club to play for – HC Bloemendaal boasts of top-notch international players like the world’s best goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann, talented Dutch fullback Wouter Jolie, midfielder Tim Jenniskens, Rogier Hofman besides the Australian trio of defenders – Chris Ciriello, Mathew Swann and Fergus Kavanagh, who turned out for them when they won the Euro Hockey League earlier this year.

Celebrated striker Teun De Nooijer also shone for HC Bloemendaal before hanging up his hockey stick earlier this year.

We all know Sardar can bring to a side – touted as the world’s best centre-half – this is how HC Bloemendaal club president Henry Goeman Borgesiuslaan’s commented on his signing. “Not only does Sardar bring a lot of experience to our squad, but he will inspire the youth of our club with his fame and charisma.”

The Indian captain is expected to be seen in action by next month.