Winning glory in their final battle

For some years now,Kartar Singh had struggled to summon the best from the barracks because the coast - more literal than figurative - was not clear.

For some years now,Kartar Singh had struggled to summon the best from the barracks because the coast – more literal than figurative – was not clear. The coach-cum-player of the Western Naval Command hockey side,watched wryly as his arch rivals Southern and the equally competitive Eastern continued to stretch their stranglehold over the Navy Hockey trophy,a prestigious honour amongst the group of stick-wielders of the Services sea-farers for 26 long years. With the Mumbai and adjoining shoreline not free of trouble in recent years – pirates and oil-spills and mammoth,wandering ships all showing up in the deep-seas,clamouring for attention – assembling manpower for solely hockey-purposes even if only to put up a challenge in the inter-Command tourney was always proving to be difficult. Security will always be first priority and it was a struggle just to put together a team,and I was always writing letters seeking permission from commanding officers of various units to collect manpower, Singh says,now that his band of merry men have regained glory after over a quarter century of going title-less and being perenially second or even third-best amongst their naval peers. This year I was adamant about getting a good team after we’d lost in sudden-death in 2009 – a loss that rankled. So we went all-out in our preparation and had a two-month long camp, says the NIS-diploma-certified coach,originally hailing from Haryana.

Playing the final at MHA stadium at Churchgate last week,Singh shepherded his disciplined unit to a 4-2 win on the astro-turf,which had been readily available to the southern and eastern bases,but a surface on which the western boys could hardly practice together and co-ordinate their combinations since they couldn’t find time together. Even this year we had to first finish office-work and then arrange for practices and book the ground – a lot of logistical things to be arranged. But winning after 26 years was well worth it, he adds.

Even more satisfying was the farewell the Western Naval Command team managed to give two of his team-mates Petty Officer Dinesh Kadam and P Gorde,who were playing their last championship,before retiring from the navy on August 31. We wanted to send them off with respect and this was a good parting gift for two players who have served the team for over a decade, Singh acknowledged. Kadam in fact has been playing for 15 years and after scoring the first goal of the tournament had sensed that this would be a victorious culmination of his hockey stint. I started taking hockey seriously at the SAI centre in Gandhinagar in 1992,it was the biggest centre in West Zone. Then after joing the Navy in 1996,I played for my unit and also the naval main team,but never winning for my Command always hurt over the years. This time I was ready for this for 6 months and I’m happy we won in my final year with the boys, says the sailor who had rued spurts of over-confidence and slumps of failure to recover,among beaten teams of the past,every two years of the championship. ‘We were always talented,but never this fit,and the preparation and playing on home turf helped, he recalls on his last day in service.

Captain Gorde,who has held the stick for over a dozen years after starting in Baroda,was happy to score the opening goal of the match,before their hustling striker Manoj Lokhande racked up a hat-trick on his home ground where he has earlier represented local sides Bombay Republicans,Tata’s and Air-India,before getting under the regimented training of the Navy sides which once boasted of Olympic bronze and World Championship medallist Michael Kindo. Usually Southern and Eastern commands have the best players in these tournaments because they draw from the Jharkhand / Orissa belt as well as boast of the best training base at Kochi. But this year,we were determined and worked towards winning this after 26 years, says the poacher who battled knee ligament and hamstring niggles,but gave it his best shot in the final against Southern whom they had lost to in the league phase.

The team celebrated with coffee after the win,before dispersing to their respective units and bidding grateful farewells to two men who were due to retire in a week’s time. Going out as champions means a lot to us,though it’s just a snippet for the next day’s newspapers, skipper Gorde laughs.

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