SARDAR SINGH NEVER LOST THE OLYMPIC CAPTAIN-SHIP: THE COMPLETE INSIDE STORY

After the announcement of the Rio Olympic Indian hockey men's team there were plenty of speculations about the captainship... Many tell Sardar Singh lost the Olympic captainship but get to know the real fact of why Sardar was not assigned as the Olympic captain...

SARDAR SINGH NEVER LOST HIS CAPTAINCY: THE INSIDE STORY

To everyone’s shock the Indian Olympic hockey team captainship was given to P R Sreejesh. Most of us presumed that it was because of Sreejesh’s recent success as a captain in the FIH Champions Trophy that seated him over Sardar during this selection. Also others had themselves consoled that Sardar had lost his captaincy because of his off-field controversy but the captainship being switched over from Sardar to Sreejesh was not because of any of the above but for the team’s new strategy.

It's called Roelant Oltmans  Strategy

Roeltman being an Australian himself has earned his respect across the hockey fan’s of India. The Hockey India indeed has given Roelant Oltmans all his freedom from bringing in a junior player who is on form by dropping an experienced lad and more, he showed his preceding dominance in each of his moves with success. Now the team has stepped into the World rank position No.5, the tag assumed to be a drastic change from “underdogs” to “strong competitor” which is not just because of a single tournament. It was and is still in progress, the selection of the Indian Olympic squad was really a tough one as the team had a healthy completion within the core probable’s. Sardar Singh was never dropped from the National team from the day he got into the squad. So, there is no meaning in discussing who the better player is or who the better captain is between Sardar and Sreejesh as Sardar is a field player and Sreejesh is a Goal keeper.

In modern hockey each moves, skills and the passes generated by players are being recorded and are being showcased during trainings. Sardar, Rupinder and few other seniors were not rested for the FIH Champions Trophy but it was a clever tactic used by Roeltman’s to show the world how strong our base is without even our best XI. Also this paved way for Sreejesh to have the captainship on Sardar’s absence. During this short period of time the rotating captainship test brought the best out of the key members of the Champion Trophy squad. Also to display a new game play and to show some distinctive set pieces in the Olympics Sardar, Rupinder and few other key players were unfortunate to hold the FIH Champions Trophy Silver medal .

True Fact of Why Sreejesh appointed as the Olympic’s captain

Now to bring forth the true fact of why Sreejesh was tagged as the captain, it was to share the duty among the key players within the team. If Sreejesh is named as the captain of the squad, he cannot wear the captain’s armband with his goalkeeper kit on this gives us an option to rotate the captaincy on-field. So, for each game the captainship responsibility will be shared by each key member of the squad .This in turn brings the best out of each player holding the accountability in each occasion. If Sardar is named as the captain the whole responsibility is on him and practically the whole nation’s pressure is not going to let him play with full freedom. By rotating the captainship with the key members of the team, each one of them is going to take the liability for each game. Also in rotating the captainship we can count on each of the vital players to raise their exhilarating performance in every game as all the senior member's hold the responsibility equally as anyone of them would be the captain of the coming  match. The shared captainship will surely be an additional progress for this Indian team to be on the podium at Rio.

Sardar’s Sportsmanship

Although all the strategies and the tactics can be agreed as a technical analyst, taking the new makeover on the right way is what that matters. And this new strategy although should have been used in earlier tournaments, pushing it till the last moment at the Olympics would have been considered a bad choice if the person was someone other than Sardar Singh. Infact Sardar took this decision right away in a very sportive manner. He really understood things from the technical as well from the psychological point of view and truly supported the decision. 

Also Sardar's rapport with the juniors as well the seniors in the squad has always been good. Being wearing the captain's armband or not , Sardar will always stay the leader among the players on the field with his extraordinary skills and vast experience.

And to all media and people who don’t know about hockey !

1) Please never compare an on-field player with a goalkeeper .

2) If Sardar’s off- field controversy was true, he would have never been part of the Indian Olympic squad.

3) There was never a Sardar Vs Sreejesh battle performance/Captainship wise (So please stop writing rumour’s which is going to affect the morale of the players)

4) Captainship is not just the band which you wear with the tag ”Captain” but the true leadership quality displayed in the hockey field.

5) It’s not just Sreejesh the captain, it is going to be Sardar, Raghunath, Sunil and the list goes on….!

The true fact is “Neither Sardar lost nor Sreejesh earned – but for the Nation ”