Officer Prepares

There is more than one hat that Hima Das, popularly known as “Ding Express” in Assam, dons. A world class athlete, who swept past global competition with relative ease in under-20 world championship in Tampere, is a socially-conscious teenager, who participated in a crusade to close liquor shops, and ensure education for girl children in her village, said her family, who recalled how a school teacher made her take athletics in place of her first love, football. Daughter of a rice-farmer, gutsy Das, was spotted by a teacher of Jawahar Navodaya Vidalaya in Morigaon, Assam, Shams Ul Haq, in 2011-12 when she visited the Central government run school for a sporting event. “She won all the athletics events. I told the district sports officer that she can do well if trained properly,” the physical training teacher said. “She was focused and wanted to win everything even as a child.” In over a year, she was a district champ but took almost two years to reach the state-l...

Sandeep Singh who had debuted in international cricket in 2004, was on his way to join the national squad ahead of their departure for the FIH World Cup in Germany. He was travelling on the Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi Express when a Railway Protection Force jawan accidentally shot him. The bullet fractured his rib, damaged his spine, kidneys and liver. Doctors proclaimed the death sentence – it would be next to impossible to play. Singh said it was the worst day of his life. All he wanted to do, lying in his hospital bed at PGIMER Chandigarh, was go out and play. He asked his brother to bring him his hockey stick and holding it his hands promised himself and his brother that he would play hockey again. After two years in a wheelchair, play he did. Sandeep Singh returned to the national team in 2008 and a year later became the captain of the Indian national team. Under his captaincy, India won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 2009 after 13 long years. Singh, who stroked i...

It’s a story that Harsha Bhogle, India’s most loved cricket commentator, loves to tell, over and over again. Making his debut in Test cricket for Sri Lanka, Marvan scored a duck in his first innings. And again, in his second innings. They dropped him. So he went back to the nets for more practice. More first-class cricket. More runs. Waiting for that elusive call. And after twenty-one months, he got a second chance. This time, he tried harder. His scores: 0 in the first innings, 1 in the second Dropped again, he went back to the grind. And scored tonnes of runs in first-class cricket. Runs that seemed inadequate to erase the painful memories of the Test failures. Well, seventeen months later, opportunity knocked yet again. Marvan got to bat in both innings of the Test. His scores: 0 and 0. Phew! Back to the grind. Would the selectors ever give him another chance? They said he lacked big-match temperament. His technique wasn’t good enough at the highest level. Und...