A silent protest – A bunch of Haryana skaters move to Himachal, win national gold for their new team

 

After getting a raw deal from their home state, a bunch of national and international skaters from Haryana did a silent protest. Shifted their base to Himachal Pradesh and helped the new team win national gold in inline hockey – a variant of hockey played on a hard surface, with players using inline skates.

They were joined by a couple of players from Punjab and Chandigarh too.  

International skater Ajay Saini was Haryana’s inline hockey captain during the nationals in 2021. The team failed to make it to the podium, finishing fourth. Saini along with other senior players Amit Rana and Manik Poonia were made the scapegoat and were given advice that they should quit the sport. 

Facing humiliation, they decided to leave Haryana, for which they had won many national medals, and moved to Himachal.

In its national debut in inline hockey, Himachal won the men’s national title in Bangalore last month.  

Courtesy: Saini & co.

“We were representing Haryana for quite a long time, so it was not an easy decision for us to leave our home state. But a defeat in the last nationals changed everything. The coaches and some of the officials put the entire blame on us as we had lost without a fight. Our only expectation was respect, but we were humiliated,” said Ajay Saini. “We are thankful to the Himachal association for allowing us to represent the state.”

“After we rebelled, almost everyone in the skating fraternity thought that we were at fault. Nobody wanted us to see on a podium in the nationals. But everyone in the team took it as a challenge and we won gold.”

In the final, Himachal defeated Chandigarh by 2-0 and in the semifinal they edged out Andhra Pradesh (5-4).  

In absence of the bunch, Haryana couldn’t even clear the league stage.

Himachal team: Ajay Saini (captain), Manik Poonia, Amit Rana, Moksh Singla, Gajender Singh, Aditya Rao (shifted from Haryana), Anish Setia and Brij Bhupinder (from Punjab), Amit Turan and Amit Gill (from Chandigarh).