Jasjit: Another feather in the cap of Sansarpur

The Punjab village has so far produced 14 Olympians, nine for India, four for Kenya and one for Canada.

For those who have followed Indian hockey for over a century, a particular village will always bring back fond memories. Sansarpur in Punjab finds mention in many record books, as many as seven players from the village once played in the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. The numbers of players from though, has dwindled dramatically over the years.

Since Ravipal played for the Indian team over a decade ago, Sansarpur’s assembly line has dried up.

However, there was something to cheer about for Sansarpur on Wednesday. When the team was announced for the men’s Hockey World Cup to be held in the Netherlands from May 31, Jasjit Singh Kular, a surprise selection having his roots in the village, made it to the Indian team.

“It’s always on our mind that we belong to the village. I trained at the village but once my father moved to Jalandhar, I too moved with him. But I visit my village almost every other week and for three months in a year I stay with my grandfather. Earlier this year we played in a tournament organised at our village,” 24-year-old Jasjit, who is the only player in the World Cup team who has not played at the international level, said.

A promising forward, Jasjit was a regular member in the Punjab junior teams and was also named in the Indian probables camp for Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 2010.

The following year, the youngster joined the rival World Series of Hockey and played for the Chandigarh team. Last year, he was inducted into the Hockey India fold.

Sansarpur, a village six kilometres from Jalandhar, Punjab, has so far produced 14 Olympians, with nine of them playing for India, four for Kenya and one for Canada.

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Such was the dominance of the village players during the 1960s and 1970s that six players played in 1964 Olympics (four for India and two for Kenya) before seven players (five for India and two for Kenya) from the village played in the 1968 Olympics.

Nitin Sharma

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and this year respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More