Jasjit's success brings hockey village Sansarpur back in focus

ANTWERP: Young player Jasjit Singh Kular's fine show in the ongoing World League Semifinals has brought a village on the outskirts of Punjab's Jalandhar city back into the focus of the hockey fraternity.

Jasjit hails from a small village Sansarpur, on the fringe of Jalandhar city that used to be the hub of Indian hockey in its heydays.

Known as the hockey village among the sports buffs, Sansarpur was a tiny hamlet that provided a number of Olympic medal winners when hockey was a craze and India were the prima donnas of the international game.

Coming from a village synonymous with Indian hockey, the sport was an obvious childhood passion for Jasjit, but it was not until he got into college after turning 18 that he seriously pursued the game.

"I was a late starter and did not get serious about playing hockey until I got into college," says Jasjit.

"For one whose village is Sansarpur, the passion for hockey was always there. I used to play as a child, but ours is a family of doctors and the focus was scientific education," said Jasjit, who scored two goals in the 3-2 win over Malaysia that placed India in the last-four round.

"It was as a student of Jalandhar's Khalsa College that I got into hockey seriously," he says.

The late-starter bloomed pretty quickly, making the national team in less than five years after playing his first competitive game. Jasjit made his international debut as a half-back during the 2014 World Cup at The Hague against Belgium.

At the World Cup, within the limited time he was fielded, Jasjit even got his name on the score-sheet against Malaysia in open field play.