What's keeping the Indian hockey team away from FB, Twitter

The intense hockey-training does not give the players much time to do other things.

By Maleeva Rebello, ET Bureau | Oct 22, 2018, 09.44 AM IST

Rupinder Pal Singh (right) and PR Sreejesh seen together.

Their on-field performances draw laurels, but when it comes to social media, Indian hockey players are almost invisible, unlike their cricketing counterparts. Except for perhaps a stray post here and there by Manpreet Singh or drag flicker Rupinder Pal Singh, you won’t find other players glued to their phones.

An innings well played @imsardarsingh8 Paji - you has and will always going to be an inspiration, motivator to all… https://t.co/UxV7ROKiVf
— Manpreet Singh (@manpreetpawar07) 1536895355000

Coach Harendra Singh put things in perspective about this at an event in Mumbai. “Hockey training is so intense that the players don’t get a chance to even go to the room as they are so tired. I often tell them that there is a world beyond the hockey pitch and their room.” And while they do often take selfies and photos, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh feels they don’t think they’re good enough to be shared on social media. “We are not sure how good we look in the pictures after all that training,” he says with a laugh.

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MS Dhoni

The former captain cool lost his cool last year when his Aadhar details were erroneously leaked online after the Common Services Center's official Twitter handle shared a photo of MS Dhoni's Aadhar application form. In fact, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had liked the tweet too, without noticing that Dhoni's personal details had been made public. He also tweeted a photo of Dhoni giving his bio-metric details to a representative.