Two hockey players, Arshdeep Singh and Princedeep Singh, who are pass outs of the Malwa Hockey Academy, Ludhiana, have been called to the India junior men’s hockey team to embark on a Europe tour from May 18 to May 31.
19-year-old Arshdeep Singh, who hails from Loharka village of Amritsar and is a student of Lyallpur Khalsa College in Jalandhar, is a junior national champion and takes inspiration from his brother, Yugraj Singh who is a national level hockey champion as well.
Centre-forward player Arshdeep participated in the Khelo India Games in the U-21 category and won a silver medal in 2019, a bronze in 2021 and a gold in the year 2023. He also won the title of “Best Player” in the 2023 Khelo India Games. He represented Guru Nanak Dev University in the inter-university games last where his team emerged victorious.
Arshdeep, a farmer’s son, is now eying the Olympics. Mentioning his family’s support, Arshdeep said, “I had my first encounter with the game when I was in school and after that, nothing could stop me. Then I got selected in the Malwa Hockey Academy where I trained for nearly four years.”
Princedeep Singh, a resident of Pathankot district, is an undergraduate student of physical education at Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, and is gearing up for getting selected for the junior world cup scheduled in December 2025.
Princedeep joined the Malwa Academy in 2017 and suffered an injury in the year 2019 post which he did not play for two consecutive years. “I credit my coach Sukhvir Singh the most for motivating me during my low phase and for letting me stay in the academy even though I did not contribute anything to the team during those years,” said Princedeep.
He recently won a silver in the inter-university championship and a bronze in the Khelo India Games 2023.
A team of 40 players was selected during the trials in December last year and out of these only 20, of which six players are from Punjab, have been selected for the tour. The players at present are in the training centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Bangalore where they are being trained for the five matches on the tour, opposite the teams of Belgium, Netherlands and Germany.
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