Sachin Tendulkar inspired me to fight-back in India squad: Sardar Singh

Hockey player Sardar Singh contemplated retirement after being left out of the Commonwealth Games squad, but a telephonic conversation with Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar changed his mind and motivated him to work harder to regain his place in the Indian team.

Sardar, 32, announced his retirement from international hockey putting an end to a 12-year glittering career after being snubbed from the India probables following a disastrous Asian Games campaign where India failed to defend the gold.

This wasn’t, however, the first time he was left out of the national squad. In April, he was not selected for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and that is when the former hockey captain sought Sachin’s advise.

“Sachin paaji has been an inspiration for me. He helped me a lot in the last 3-4 months, which were tough,” Sardar was quoted as saying by PTI.

“There has never been an occasion when he didn’t answer my call. After I was dropped from the CWG squad, I was very low and called Sachin paaji and asked him what he used to do when he scored 0.

“He counselled me for close to 20 minutes and advised me to forget about criticisms and stay motivated and focussed. He told me to analyse my old videos, play my natural hockey and it helped me in bouncing back,” he added.

The advise seemed to have worked wonders for Sardar, who bounced back into the Indian team and guided the side to a World Champions Trophy silver earlier this year.

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He also won a gold at the Asian Games in 2014 besides the two bronze in 2010 and 2018. Apart from these he also has two Asiad trophies and several other trophies.

But not winning the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Player of the Year award, besides the Olympic and a World Cup medal still remain a regret for the midfielder.

“I always wanted to win the FIH ‘Player of the Year’ award once but it will remain a dream. I also wanted to win an Olympic and World Cup medal. These will remain as my biggest regrets,” said the 32-year-old.

“When we started, India was around 13 or 14th ranked in the world. We have made giant strides from there in the past 4-5 years. We have started playing semi-finals. But we need to know how to win big games and kill time in the final stages when we are leading,” he added.

Also Read: Hockey India pays tribute to the retired former national captain Sardar Singh

Image Source: DNA India